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First Major Flight Component for X-33 Arrives at Palmdale

Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, DC                            February 
11, 1998
(Phone: 202/358-1779)

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

Ron Lindeke
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, Palmdale, CA
(Phone: 805/572-4153)

Marion LaNasa
Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems, New Orleans, LA
(Phone: 504/257-1307)

RELEASE: 98-27

FIRST MAJOR FLIGHT COMPONENT FOR X-33 ARRIVES AT PALMDALE

     NASA and Lockheed Martin Tuesday saw their X-33 technology 
demonstrator move from drawing board to plant floor as the first 
major flight component arrived at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works 
vehicle assembly facility in Palmdale, CA.

     The 26-foot-long, 5,500-pound aluminum liquid oxygen tank 
that will form much of the nose and forward third of the X-33 
vehicle arrived Tuesday afternoon by air from the Lockheed Martin 
Michoud Space Systems facility, New Orleans, LA.

     "The arrival of the liquid oxygen tank marks the start of an 
ambitious assembly schedule that will see the X-33 vehicle roll 
out and begin flight tests within 18 months," said Jerry Rising, 
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works vice president for X-33/VentureStar.

     "This is a significant achievement in making the X-33 vehicle 
ready for flight, as the liquid oxygen tank is the first major 
element to be placed into the assembly fixture," added Gene 
Austin, NASA X-33 program manager.

     The tank, designed to hold more than 181,000 pounds of liquid 
oxygen, will supply the oxidizer needed to burn the vehicle's 
fuel, liquid hydrogen.

     The liquid oxygen tank design also plays a key structural 
role in the X-33.  It has a complex, two-lobed structure allowing 
for a close fit within the vehicle's outer shell.  When filled, 
the tank will account for about 65 percent of total vehicle weight 
at liftoff.

     The liquid oxygen tank design is one of a number of 
challenging technology areas that are key to the X-33, including 
the vehicle's two cutting-edge composite liquid hydrogen tanks, 
two linear aerospike engines, the vehicle's rugged metallic 
thermal protection system and advanced avionics systems, all of 
which will be arriving at the Palmdale facility during the coming 
year.  Vehicle assembly is scheduled to be completed in late 
spring 1999, with the first flight, to be launched from Edwards 
Air Force Base, CA, scheduled for July 1999.

     The wedge-shaped X-33 is a sub-scale prototype technology 
demonstrator leading to the next generation of commercially 
developed and operated single-stage-to orbit vehicles, flying 
after the turn of the Century, which could dramatically reduce the 
cost of putting payloads into space.

                        -end-