The LOX tank passed testing and was installed with plumbing and electronics around the front third of the vehicle’s structure. Such was the scale of the initial protest, the go-ahead was given to build the LOX (liquid oxygen) tank out of the same aluminium-lithium alloy that is currently used on the external tanks for the Space Shuttle, a small but important victory for the protesting engineers at the time. However, this was no surprise to those working on the program, with new information now showing that engineers and designers had protested at the very moment they were informed of a management decision to build a composite LH2 tank. Other minor issues had continued to be ironed out until a critical test highlighted previously noted concerns, one that would add years to the target date for the first test flight, ultimately leading to be the end of the program – the failure of the composite LH2 (liquid hydrogen) tank during testing. This would prove to be a major – and defining – problem later in the process. The XRS-2200 Linear Aerospike main engines were on target to become the next generation of liquid-fuelled propulsion systems, although Rocketdyne’s decision to use Narloy-Z – a heavy copper alloy – saw changes to the flight control surfaces due of an aft-heavy center of gravity.

Testing and construction had been going well during the assembly of the scaled down version of the VentureStar, with the launch facility at Edwards Air Force Base in California completed – along with 40 percent of the X-33.Īdvances had been made with the thermal protection system (TPS) which doubled up as the aerodynamic shell of the vehicle.

However, the official reasons for its demise fail to portray the true story. Taking shape at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility, the X-33 was intended to be a 1/3 scale prototype of a fully-operational RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle) called the VentureStar, designed to dramatically lower the costs of launching payloads into space.

However, controversial key decisions – and a major test failure – during the construction of the technology demonstrator, the X-33, saw the program cancelled just as the first vehicles were being constructed. The VentureStar may now be nothing more than a memory, but it nearly became part of NASA’s future ambitions – playing a role as part of a commercial fleet and even an option for the US Air Force.

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