WASHINGTON -- The ill-fated X-33 program -- a jointly funded NASA and industry endeavor to build and fly an unpiloted single-stage-to-orbit prototype -- may not have completely bit the dust after all.
SPACE.com sources suggest that X-33 flight hardware will now be placed in storage at Edwards Air Force Base, California, under U.S. Air Force auspices.
Much of the never-flown vehicle has been completed. The suborbital space plane, along with major tools and other equipment, now in a hangar at neighboring Palmdale, California, will be moved to a launch complex at the Edwards desert base. That site was specially constructed to support a series of suborbital test hops of the craft.
Intentions of the Air Force in keeping the project under its care are not clear, a source said.
Carrying the torch
NASA nixed the cooperative effort -- between the space agency and Lockheed Martin -- allowing it to expire in March of this year. At that point, NASA has put $912 million into the project. Lockheed Martin had invested $356 million of its own monies.
For Lockheed Martin, the X-33 was seen as critical to verifying new technologies in the building of VentureStar - a commercial, fully reusable, single-stage-to-orbit vehicle.
Since the program's axing, what to do with the X-33 hardware has been hotly debated. Torching the space plane, by cutting it up and selling pieces for scrap appeared to be gaining support - a costly effort in itself.
In September, after an internal assessment, the Air Force announced that it would not assume project management and funding responsibility for the X-33. While noting the project "made significant contributions", military officials said the project did not "provide a level of military utility needed to continue development and funding" by the Air Force.
Pulling the plug
The project was begun in July 1996. Initial plans called for the X-33 -- "X" for experimental -- to first rocket from the Edwards Air Force Base in July 1999.
From early in its inception, the X-33 slogged through various technical woes. It suffered from stability problems, gained in overall weight, and its set of novel linear aerospike engines proved troublesome at first to design. However, numbers of challenges in the program were tackled and solved.
However, in November 1999, a composite liquid hydrogen tank for the X-33 failed in testing. That kick-started a major slip in the program, as well as a major review of the entire work-in-progress. NASA pulled the plug on the project last March.
Details regarding the X-33's fate are forthcoming, a source told SPACE.com.
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