NASA to take giant step towards new space frontier
July 2, 1996
Web posted at: 12:00 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT)From Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella
MIAMI (CNN) -- For the first time in a quarter century, NASA is set to unveil the design for a new rocketship. The U.S. space agency will choose one of three competing companies to build a next-generation reuseable spacecraft, designed to be both a cost saver and a frequent flyer.
NASA needs the new rocketship, called the X-33, because the current space shuttle, with its old technology, is running out of years. This is the space agency's first major step toward developing a shuttle replacement, with the future international space station its prime destination.
A noteworthy difference between this project and the existing shuttle is that NASA will lease, not own, the new vehicle. That means if it can't turn a profit, it won't get built.
Vice President Al Gore was scheduled to make the new contract announcement Tuesday afternoon at 4:15 p.m. EDT in California, marking the first new space transportation system initiative since President Nixon announced the shuttle project in 1972.
"The current shuttle really should be understood as a first generation, now old-technology system, very expensive to operate, very cranky, very delicate," said John Logsdon of George Washington University.
Three contractors have submitted their interpretations of the next generation of space shuttles: Rockwell International's version is similar to the existing shuttle; (119K QuickTime movie) Lockheed Martin's version resembles a flying arrowhead; (229K QuickTime movie) and the McDonnell Douglas prototype launches and lands vertically. (535K QuickTime movie)
Despite the varied designs, the objective is the same: to reduce the cost of delivering payloads into space to about $1,000 a pound, and provide reliable access for an estimated 50 flights a year.
"Today it takes two months or more to turn a shuttle orbiter around, " said Thad Sandford, Rockwell's X-33 project manager. "We want to be able to turn it around in two ... three days with very few people, and that can be done."
Much of this has a familiar ring to it. In 1972, NASA calculated that launching a pound of cargo on the shuttle would cost $260 and that the vehicle would fly 25 times a year. In reality, the shuttle flies about seven times a year and payload costs are at $10,000 per pound.
"The fundamental challenge is to build one which is commercially financed, independently financed, and to operate it as a commercial enterprise for profit," Sandford said.
An operation system could be flying by the year 2005 at a cost between $4 billion and $8 billion. The winning company will receive some $900 million from NASA to develop the experimental X-33 and conduct a dozen or so unmanned, suborbital test flights in 1999. Then, it will be up to the company and investors to determine whether it's economically feasible to proceed with a twice-as-large, operational, reusable launch vehicle.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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