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NASA Commits to Second Vehicle for X-34 Program

Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, DC                      January 21, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1779)

Dom Amatore
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
(Phone:  205/544-0031)

Barron Beneski
Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, VA
(Phone:  703/406-5528)

RELEASE:  98-11

NASA COMMITS TO SECOND VEHICLE FOR X-34 PROGRAM

     NASA has modified its X-34 contract with Orbital Sciences 
Corp., Dulles, VA, to produce a second flight vehicle for the X-34 
Program.  "The purpose of a second vehicle is to reduce risk to 
the X-34 program," said deputy program manager Mike Allen of 
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.  "One of the 
lessons we learned from the Clipper Graham program is that it is 
desirable to have a second flight vehicle available, especially if 
it can be acquired at a relatively low cost."  Clipper Graham was 
a previous technology demonstrator that NASA flew four times in 
1996, until it was destroyed during landing.

     Under the new arrangement, X-34 test objectives are being 
expanded, adding, for example, unpowered tests to the flight 
profile.  A second vehicle also will provide flexibility in 
demonstrating various technologies, Allen said, allowing testing 
that requires repetitive flights to continue at the same time as 
tests which require significant, time-consuming changes to the 
vehicle.

     In August 1996 NASA entered into a $50 million contract with 
Orbital Sciences Corp. to design, build and test-fly the X-34, a 
small, reusable technology demonstrator.  An additional $10 
million was committed by NASA to be spent in direct support of X-
34 by NASA Centers and other government agencies.  Now the 
contract has been increased by $7.7 million to purchase long lead-
time hardware, including a new wing, fuselage, avionics set, 
hydraulic pump and actuator system, and more.  NASA has committed 
$2 million more for the government to provide wind tunnel testing, 
additional testing and analysis, and a second leading-edge Thermal 
Protection System.

     An $8.5 million option calls for purchase of shorter lead-
time hardware, such as navigation systems, while a $1.8 million 
option has been added for assembly of piece parts into subsystems, 
integration and final assembly.  These options should be formally 
exercised shortly.

     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 11.5 feet tall from the bottom of the fuselage to 
the top of the tail.  Capable of flying eight times the speed of 
sound and reaching an altitude of 250,000 feet, the X-34 will 
demonstrate low-cost reusability, autonomous landing, subsonic 
flights through inclement weather, safe abort conditions, and 
landing in 20-knot cross winds.

     The X-34 is designed to bridge the gap between the earlier 
Clipper Graham, or DC-XA, subsonic demonstrator vehicle, and the 
larger, more advanced X-33 vehicle.  The X-34 will demonstrate key 
technologies applicable to development of a future Reusable Launch 
Vehicle.  The overall goal of these vehicle programs is to 
demonstrate the key technologies needed to dramatically lower the 
cost of putting a pound of payload into space. 

                         - end -