posted on Sep, 16 2003 @ 07:46 PM
There may be more to this than meets the eye.
The X-33 was supposed to replace the aging space shuttle. The Space Shuttle costs somewhere around $600 million dollars per launch, which is 30
times more than costs which are associated with the comparatively safer Russian Soyuz rocket that took Dennis Tito and a crew of two other cosmonauts
to the lone remaining international space station back in April of 2001.
Peculiarities emerged from how NASA handled the X-33 program, such as its controversially having awarded the entire contract to one lone provider
(Lockheed Martin) back in 1996, here in a country where competition usually is the chosen path.
The X-33 also involved a lot of unproven, "high risk" technologies that predictably did not yield worthwhile dividends.
It was almost as if decision-makers did not want the X-33 to succeed as it would bring down the cost of launching, from the current ($10,000 per
pound) that taxpayers pay to launch people on the Space Shuttle.
Coincidentally, perhaps, Lockheed also operates the Space Shuttle (through its United Space Alliance joint venture with Boeing).
www.spaceprojects.com...