WASHINGTON - A former director of NASA's Advanced Programs and Advanced Technologies said the space agency's most recent plans to test-launch the X-33 space vehicle are a waste of time.
Such test-launching "won't prove anything," said Ivan Bekey, a former NASA official, in testimony April 11 before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
The X-33 is a small-scale prototype of a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle. Unlike conventional rockets, single-stage-to-orbit vehicles reach orbit in one piece, rather than shedding parts as they ascend. The vehicle is intended to take the place of the Space Shuttle in ferrying people to space stations at hypersonic speeds.
Bekey's criticism focused on NASA's plan to fly the X-33 with a fuel tank composed of aluminum rather than lighter composite metals. NASA's hope for the X-33 is to reduce the present cost of going into space of $10,000 per pound to $1,000 per pound.
The agency is developing composite metal tanks that will be 30 percent lighter but just as strong as aluminum ones. However, Samuel Venneri, NASA's Associate Administrator for Aerospace Technology, told the subcommittee NASA intended to continue developing the lighter tank, but did not want to wait.
He said the agency would use an aluminum tank for test launching so as not to hold up the vehicle's overall development.
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