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NASA Finalizes X-34 Contract with Orbital Sciences Corp.

Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, DC             August 30, 1996
(Phone: 202/358-1779)

Dom Amatore
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 
(Phone: 205/544-6533)

RELEASE: 96-177

NASA FINALIZES X-34 CONTRACT WITH ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP. 

    NASA has finalized its contract negotiations with Orbital 
Sciences Corp. (OSC), Dulles, VA, to design, build and test-
fly the X-34, a small, reusable technology demonstrator 
vehicle. The 30-month contract is valued at approximately $50 
million. An additional $10 million will be spent by NASA in 
direct support of X-34 by NASA Centers and other government agencies.  

    NASA selected Orbital Sciences for the X-34 contract in 
June. The contract with OSC includes two powered flight tests 
scheduled to begin in the fall of 1998 at White Sands Missile 
Range, NM, that will occur within a period of four months. 

    The X-34 is a single-engine rocket with short wings and a 
small tail surface. The vehicle is 58.3 feet long, 27.7 feet 
wide at wing tip and 11-1/2 feet tall from the bottom of the 
fuselage to the top of the tail. 

    The X-34 will be carried aloft and launched from an 
Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft at the White Sands Missile 
Range, NM.  It will complete the initial flights within the 
White Sands range air space and land at the facility's runway.

    The fast-track X-34 program calls for demonstrating a 
vehicle that will be capable of flying at eight times the 
speed of sound and reaching an altitude of 250,000 feet. The 
vehicle will demonstrate low-cost reusability, autonomous 
landing, subsonic flights through rain, safe abort 
conditions, and landing in 20-knot cross winds.

    NASA may exercise a contract option for up to 25 
additional test flights, if required, during a 12-month 
period beginning immediately after the initial contract is 
complete. Flights would originate from either White Sands or 
the Kennedy Space Center, FL.  The Florida location would be 
used to test the X-34's subsonic flight capabilities in 
weather conditions such as rain, high cross winds and fog.  

    The X-34 program is one of three within the Reusable 
Launch Vehicle (RLV) technology program managed by the 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.  The others are 
the subsonic Clipper Graham test vehicle and the Mach 15 X-33 
advanced technology demonstrator, scheduled to begin flight 
demonstrations in early 1999.  The overall RLV program aims 
to reduce the cost of access to space by a factor of 10, and 
promote the creation and delivery of new space services and 
other activities that will improve U.S. economic 
competitiveness. 

    NASA centers and government installations involved in the 
X-34 program include the Marshall Space Flight Center, 
Huntsville, AL, which is providing design and development of 
the vehicle's main propulsion system; Langley Research 
Center, Hampton, VA, which is conducting key aerodynamics 
testing in its wind tunnels; Ames Research Center, Mountain 
View, CA, which is providing the thermal protection system 
for the X-34's leading edges and nose cap; White Sands Test 
Facility, NM, operated by the Johnson Space Center, Houston, 
TX; the Army's White Sands Missile Range, NM; Holloman Air 
Force Base, NM; and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, 
Edwards, CA, which is assisting with the flight test portion 
of the contract. 

                            -end-