On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:00:45 -0500, "jonathan"
wrote:

WASHINGTON -- NASA announced Thursday that the problem-plagued X-33 spaceplane
project, a venture that aimed to create a single-stage-to-orbit spaceliner, has
been scrapped. In addition, the American space agency announced that another
reusable rocket, the X-34, is being axed.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...el_010301.html

From...."the last remaining barrier", to "problem plagued" in just four months!


Just curious if you are following NASA's current version of the X-33,
the "Ares I". We're on very much the same death spiral with Ares I as
X-33 followed. Unofficial word from almost every quarter (that doesn't
fear for their jobs by refusing to toe the party line), is that Ares I
is a problem-plagued mess of a launch vehicle. The SSME was too
expensive and cranky to work as an upper stage engine, so it was
cancelled and replaced with the "proven" J-2. Oops, J-2 didn't have
enough oomph, so they went with J-2X. Even that wasn't enough, so the
new J-2X is an even bigger upgrade from the original J-2. And that
still wasn't enough, so they went with a five segment SRB, instead of
the "cheap and proven" Shuttle SRB. Development costs and time went
through the roof, and launch schedules were left in the dustbin. And
the new design makes for one really long and thin rocket, so
controllability will be problematic. And they realized it will have
thrust oscillation issues like nobody's business, so NASA had to add
dampers, adding complexity and weight. Then we learned that if there
is a breeze, Ares I might hit the launch tower at liftoff. Yet all the
press releases insist "everything is hunky-dory."

It was the same with X-33. It seemed that every month there was more
bad news about it. The composite tank failed. Stability went from bad
to worse the more they looked into its design. It grew big, heavy
wings, which cut the production version's payload potential. They
finally abandoned the composite tank altogether and went with
aluminum, which cut payload even more. They needed space for more
fuel, so the payload was shifted from an internal payload bay to a pod
on the vehicle's back. The aerospike engine tests on an SR-71 seemed
to be endlessly delayed. But NASA kept coming back with, "It's okay,
really, we just need a little more money." Bush came in and said "No
more money." One of the few things Bush actually did that was right.

X-34 and its Fastrac engine was almost as big a fiasco. By the time it
was mercifully killed, it barely had better performance than an SR-71.

Brian