WASHINGTON (States News Service) - A NASA investigative team has confirmed that one of the fuel tanks on the X-33 is fractured and should have a final report within six weeks, NASA said.
NASA has released the first pictures of the damage to space.com.
One section of the starboard tank on the test vehicle suffered a "disbond" - meaning the outside skin of the tank peeled away from the inside skin - after a series of stress tests at the Marshall Space Flight Center earlier this month.
The craft, built jointly by Lockheed-Martin and NASA, is a small-scale version of a proposed commercial reusable launch vehicle.
Bob Goetz, senior advisor and former vice president of engineering for Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, and Bob Ryan, retired deputy director of the Structures and Dynamics Laboratory at the Marshall Center, will lead the team investigating the damage, NASA said.
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