For NASA, the work was to lead to a space
shuttle replacement. For Lockheed Martin, the sub-scale X-33 was
seen as critical to verifying new technologies in the building of a
company dream machine, the larger VentureStar, a commercial, fully
reusable, single-stage-to-orbit vehicle.
Action plan list
"There's a lot of worthwhile hardware," said Dennis Smith,
program manager for NASA's Space Launch Initiative (SLI) at the
space agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Since both NASA and industry partners spent money on X-33, how best
to dispose of space plane elements is now under discussion, he
said.
Among items being eyed for distribution: X-33 oxygen tanks,
umbilical cords, fiber optic cabling, avionics gear, propellant feed
lines, electro-mechanical actuators, valves, advanced thermal
protection system tiles, and special software.
"There's just an enormous amount of hardware that we can
transition over to SLI, or other programs. The hardware has a lot of
utility in it," Smith told SPACE.com. "It became obvious, to us at
least, that the hardware was worth more distributed than it was
together," he said.
Smith said an action plan list of what and where X-33 parts are
to be shipped and stored is in the works, due before the end of the
month.
A lot of the hardware could likely end up at the NASA Dryden
Flight Research Center at Edwards, California, Smith said, as well
as at Marshall Space Flight Center or the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida.
Lockheed Martin's use of X-33 bits and pieces hasn't been
pinpointed, Smith said. "Anything that the government owns will be
open to anyone, and we'll make that list available," he said.
The X-33's desert launch site at Edwards Air Force Base has been
transferred over to the military, Smith said.
Intellectual property
Julie Andrews, Lockheed Martin spokeswoman, said company
engineers were always hopeful of saving the vehicle.
One company source said the decision produced a lot of long
faces.
"The disappointment of never seeing X-33 fly is one thing. But
we're optimistic about the next step," Andrews said. "There was an
understanding it was at an end...and then onto the next generation,"
she said.
Andrews said that divvying up the hardware assets is still being
assessed. A detailed plan is still coming on specific items and
where they are going to go, she said.
"But the intellectual property is probably the strongest thing
people have taken away from the project," Andrews
said.