Allen Thomson wrote:

I didn't know that Urie was the HAVE REGION guy.

http://www.rocketplane.com/Teammates.html

The page says "Updated 2/18/99".

David M. Urie founded Technology Advantage in 1995 to market
aerospace management consulting services to emerging air and
space hardware competitors around the Pacific Rim. He is the
Former Director of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works SSTO and X-33
RLV Advanced Technology Demonstration Programs both located
in Palmdale, CA.

Urie's work as the program manger for the previously
classified Have Region project demonstrated that rocket powered
single stage to orbit vehicle were technically feasible which
led to the Lockheed Martin SSTO design approach. This renewed
interest established the X-33 program for which Urie was the
program manger responsible for developing the VentureStar Single
Stage to Orbit/Reusable Launch Vehicle concept and the X-33
demonstrator design. Recently, NASA awarded the Advanced
Technology Demonstration Program to Lockheed Martin who will
design, fabricate and fly an X vehicle to demonstrate the SSTO
technology and design approach in flight. Urie's technical and
program leadership created this success.

I note that David Urie was no longer on board at Lockheed-Martin
when the disastrous X-33 tank failures occurred. I heard him speak
at a meeting held at Rocketdyne that was open to AIAA members.

He told the Rocketdyne employees that they might believe their
aerospike engine was the highest risk element because of its
newness, but the LH2 composite tanks were actually the highest
risk component. At that time Urie was retired from Lockheed-Martin
but still a consultant to them.

The way that Lockheed-Martin management handled the composite
LH2 tank part of the program does not indicate that they paid any
attention to their former managers concerns.

This doesn't mean that I believe that the VentureStar was the
right concept, but if better management had prevailed the X-33
might have at least made it to flight test.

Mike Walsh