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For Release: April 2, 1996 Dom Amatore RELEASE: 96-22 X-33 PHASE II COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE ISSUED A Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) was issued late yesterday for demonstration of Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO) technologies through the design, fabrication and flight test of an X-33 advanced technology demonstrator. This technology demonstration effort will enable the development of a new generation of reusable launch vehicles which will greatly reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit. "We are moving forward in our partnership with industry to do the cutting-edge research required to provide our nation with a reliable, affordable means of access to space," said Gary Payton, Reusable Launch Vehicle program manager in NASA's Office of Space Access and Technology, Washington, DC. The notice solicits proposals for a joint government and industry effort to demonstrate SSTO technologies by means of the X-33. Three aerospace companies -- Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace and Rockwell International Corp. -- have been working with NASA since March 1995 on concept definition and design of the X-33 in Phase I of the program. NASA will select an industry partner for Phase II, in which X-33 will demonstrate vehicle reusability and operability concepts that assure low cost operations and rapid processing for reflight. Phase II will culminate in flight demonstration testing of the X-33, which will begin in early 1999. "X-33 is an experimental program intended to reduce the risk of developing and operating a Single-Stage-To-Orbit vehicle," said X-33 project manager Gene Austin of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL. "It will give government and industry the means to decide by the end of this decade the feasibility of developing an operational next-generation reusable launch vehicle. That development, if it occurs, is planned to be led by industry." NASA and industry will share costs during Phase II of the X-33 program, with NASA budgeting a total of $941 million in expenditures through 1999. The amount its industry partner will invest is to be determined. Industry proposals are due by May 13, 1996, and NASA expects to select its industry partner by July. Approval from the White House is required for NASA to proceed into this next phase of the X-33 program. The X-33 draft CAN is available via the Internet at URL: http://procure.msfc.nasa.gov/midrange/presol/notices/notices.html |
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