X-33 PHASE II COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE ISSUED
Jim Cast, Dom Amatore
A Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) was issued late
yesterday for demonstration of Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO)
technologies through the design, fabrication and flight test of
an X-33 advanced technology demonstrator. This technology
demonstration effort will enable the development of a new
generation of reusable launch vehicles which will greatly
reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit.
“We are moving forward in our partnership with industry to
do the cutting-edge research required to provide our nation
with a reliable, affordable means of access to space,” said
Gary Payton, Reusable Launch Vehicle program manager in NASAs
Office of Space Access and Technology, Washington, DC.
The notice solicits proposals for a joint government and
industry effort to demonstrate SSTO technologies by means of
the X-33. Three aerospace companies — Lockheed Martin Skunk
Works, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace and Rockwell International
Corp. — have been working with NASA since March 1995 on
concept definition and design of the X-33 in Phase I of the
program. NASA will select an industry partner for Phase II, in
which X-33 will demonstrate vehicle reusability and operability
concepts that assure low cost operations and rapid processing
for reflight. Phase II will culminate in flight demonstration
testing of the X-33, which will begin in early 1999.
“X-33 is an experimental program intended to reduce the
risk of developing and operating a Single-Stage-To-Orbit
vehicle,” said X-33 project manager Gene Austin of NASAs
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.
“It will give government and industry the means to decide by
the end of this decade the feasibility of developing an
operational next-generation reusable launch vehicle. That
development, if it occurs, is planned to be led by industry.”
NASA and industry will share costs during Phase II of the
X-33 program, with NASA budgeting a total of $941 million in
expenditures through 1999. The amount its industry partner
will invest is to be determined.
Industry proposals are due by May 13, 1996, and NASA
expects to select its industry partner by July. Approval from
the White House is required for NASA to proceed into this next
phase of the X-33 program.
The X-33 CAN is available via the Internet at URL:
http://procure.msfc.nasa.gov/midrange/presol/notices/notices.ht
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