Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, DC            December 18, 1996
(Phone: 202/358-1779)

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

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

RELEASE: 96-263

X-33 PROGRAM COMPLETES OPERATIONS REVIEW 

     For the second time in as many months, government and 
industry managers have successfully completed a Preliminary 
Design Review (PDR) for the X-33 technology demonstration 
program. This design review for the operations segment and 
ground systems segment of the X-33 represents the last in a 
series of PDRs.

     The three day PDR conducted last week in California, 
with NASA and industry team members in attendance, confirmed 
readiness to begin detailed design of the X-33 Ground Support 
System and Launch Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, CA.  
Last month, a week-long PDR approved a baseline configuration 
for final detailed vehicle design and long-lead procurement. 
The next major milestones for the program are a series of 
Critical Design Reviews (CDRs) starting in January and 
culminating in an August Operations CDR.  Construction of a 
25-acre launch facility at Edwards is expected to begin in 
October 1997. 

    The X-33, a half-scale technology demonstrator, is 
scheduled to make as many as fifteen flights during a 10-
month period, beginning in March 1999.  Launched vertically 
from Edwards, it will fly up to 15 times the speed of sound 
at altitudes approaching 50 miles.  Potential landing sites 
are located in California, Utah, Montana and the state of 
Washington. The flagship vehicle in the agency's Reusable 
Launch Vehicle (RLV) program, X-33 is intended to pave the 
way for a full scale, commercially-developed RLV after the 
turn of the century, which could dramatically reduce the cost 
of putting payloads into space. 

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