Gravely disappointed in NASA’s decision last March to cancel an experimental reusable rocket program on which $1.3 billion has already been spent, Lockheed Martin Corp. has vowed not to let its next-generation project go gently into that good night.
Company officials have been quietly negotiating with the U.S. Air Force for what analysts believe will need to be hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to complete construction of the X-33 rocket.
Should the additional funding come through, it could mean a boost for Lockheed’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale and Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne facility in Canoga Park, both of which have been building components of the rocket.
The 69-foot-tall X-33 was to be the prototype for the VentureStar, a single-stage-to-orbit rocket that would be able to transport satellites and other payloads and eventually astronauts to and from space. VentureStar would be roughly twice the size of the X-33, with cost estimates ranging from $1 billion to $8 billion for each rocket.
“We’re not so interested in the X-33, per se,” said Lt. Col. Donald Miles, spokesman for the Air Force Space Command. “We’re interested in the technology and what we can learn from it.”
For that reason, the cash-strapped Air Force has vowed to search for funding in its fiscal 2003 and 2004 budgets to keep the technology demonstration program alive.
Lockheed officials had begun to consider where the VentureStar would be assembled, with Palmdale-based Skunk Works among the possible locations, company officials said. But no decision has been made.
Meanwhile, Rocketdyne, which built the X-33’s linear aerospike engines at its Canoga Park plant, is pleading with NASA to find some discretionary funding to complete what has so far been successful testing at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Without money, however, the X-33 would remain encased in scaffolding and only 75 percent complete in a Skunk Works hanger.
The few remaining staff among Lockheed’s 110 X-33 workers who have not already been reassigned to other projects within the 3,800-employee Palmdale operation would move on once their duties under the NASA contract are complete. No layoffs are expected, sources said.
Launch still years away
Citing the lack of maturity in single-stage technology where rockets takeoff and return in one piece, with no boosters or fuel tanks automatically detaching from the main vessel NASA shut the program down in March.
By then, the agency had spent $912 million while a Lockheed-led team of contractors had invested $356 million.
The X-33 was to be launched from Edwards Air Force Base in 2003 for a 15-minute test flight that would either touch down at Michael Army Air Field in the Utah desert or at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
“It was a great disappointment to the people who had been working very hard on it, particularly since it was so close to being ready for the first flight,” said Julie Andrews, a Lockheed spokeswoman. “When you are building something for flight, you want to see it fly, not to just build it and see it sit in a hangar.”
Contractors hoped the VentureStar would make its inaugural launch by the end of the decade.
But NASA was concerned about problems that arose after planning for the X-33 rocket began in 1996. Chief among the problems was a crack that occurred in a fuel tank made from composite materials during testing in November 1999.
“We have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from these X-programs,” said Art Stephenson, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which oversaw the program. “But one of the things we have learned is that our technology has not yet advanced to the point that we can successfully develop a new reusable launch vehicle that substantially improves safety, reliability and affordability.”
Changing direction
As a result, NASA opted to earmark its funding toward multi-staged systems that will be part of the Space Launch Initiative, the next generation of vehicles bringing humans and cargo to the International Space Station.
President Bush has stated that funding for NASA would not increase in the next fiscal year.
Some aerospace analysts said they understand why the program had to be scrapped, adding that they believe the agency will revisit single-stage-to-orbit projects in the future.
“The funds spent by NASA on IRD (initial research and development) never go to waste,” said Thomas Campbell, a partner in Veritas Capital. “All this money is money well spent. They learn a lot from all their research projects.”
Despite problems with the X-33, Lockheed officials said they believe they could develop a rocket that could fly orbital missions more cost-efficiently than rockets with detachable parts in the relatively near future if the government would provide the financial support.
“We differ somewhat on our views of the technological maturity of the single-stage-to-orbit concept,” said Evan McCollum, a Lockheed spokesman, referring to NASA. “We think with additional funding and some additional technology effort over the next few years, developing the vehicle is possible.”
Since both of Rocketdyne’s flight engines had successfully completed the first round of hot-fire tests just before NASA’s announcement, the company expected the devices to be ready for installation this month.
But now the engines will likely not be ready until the end of the year, even if NASA appropriates the $3 million that Rocketdyne officials say is needed to complete testing. And NASA officials won’t even say when they will make a decision on the discretionary funding.
“It’s frustrating for Rocketdyne because we have great engines and there is a lot to be learned from these engines beyond applications to X-33,” said Dan Beck, spokesman for the Boeing division. “Just because X-33 has been cancelled doesn’t mean we won’t gain from the knowledge of the technology of these engines.”
But if NASA wants Rocketdyne to complete the testing, it will have to come up with the $3 million to cover the cost.
“Someone has to pay for it, and we (at Rocketdyne) are not prepared to pay for it,” Beck said.
