The X-33 was a suborbital reusable spaceplane demonstrator, in development from 1996 to early 2001. The intent of the demonstrator was to lower the risk of building and operating a full-scale reusable vehicle fleet. Reusable spaceplanes offered the potential to lower the cost of access to space by an order of magnitude, compared with conventional expendable launch vehicles. Although a cryogenic tank failure during testing ultimately led to the end of the effort, the X-33 team celebrated many successes during the development. This paper summarizes some of the accomplishments and milestones of this X-vehicle program, from the perspective of an engineer who was a member of the team throughout the development. X-33 Program accomplishments include rapid, flight hardware design, subsystem testing and fabrication, aerospike engine development and testing, Flight Operations Center and Operations Control Center ground systems design and construction, rapid Environmental Impact Statement NEPA process approval, Range development and flight plan approval for test flights, and full-scale system concept design and refinement. Lessons from the X-33 Program may have potential application to new RLV and other aerospace systems being developed a decade later.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Demonstrator, Spaceport and Range


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    AIAA Space 2011 Conference ; 2011 ; Long Beach, CA, United States


    Publication date :

    2011-09-27


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle Demonstrator, Spaceport and Range

    Letchworth, G. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2011




    X-34 Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator Mass Properties Control

    Bocam, K. J. / Society of Allied Weight Engineers | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999