Jim Cast
Headquarters, Washington, DC           April 2, 1996
(Phone:  202/358-1779)

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


RELEASE:  96-62

X-33 PHASE II COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE ISSUED

    A Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) was issued late 
yesterday for demonstration of Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO) 
technologies through the design, fabrication and flight test of 
an X-33 advanced technology demonstrator.  This technology 
demonstration effort will enable the development of a new 
generation of reusable launch vehicles which will greatly 
reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit.

    "We are moving forward in our partnership with industry to 
do the cutting-edge research required to provide our nation 
with a reliable, affordable means of access to space," said 
Gary Payton, Reusable Launch Vehicle program manager in NASAÕs 
Office of Space Access and Technology, Washington, DC.

    The notice solicits proposals for a joint government and 
industry effort to demonstrate SSTO technologies by means of 
the X-33.  Three aerospace companies -- Lockheed Martin Skunk 
Works, McDonnell Douglas Aerospace and Rockwell International 
Corp. -- have been working with NASA since March 1995 on 
concept definition and design of the X-33 in Phase I of the 
program.  NASA will select an industry partner for Phase II, in 
which X-33 will demonstrate vehicle reusability and operability 
concepts that assure low cost operations and rapid processing 
for reflight.  Phase II will culminate in flight demonstration 
testing of the X-33, which will begin in early 1999.

    "X-33 is an experimental program intended to reduce the 
risk of developing and operating a Single-Stage-To-Orbit 
vehicle," said X-33 project manager Gene Austin of NASAÕs 
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.

"It will give government and industry the means to decide by 
the end of this decade the feasibility of developing an 
operational next-generation reusable launch vehicle.  That 
development, if it occurs, is planned to be led by industry."

    NASA and industry will share costs during Phase II of the 
X-33 program, with NASA budgeting a total of $941 million in 
expenditures through 1999.  The amount its industry partner 
will invest is to be determined.

    Industry proposals are due by May 13, 1996, and NASA 
expects to select its industry partner by July.   Approval from 
the White House is required for NASA to proceed into this next 
phase of the X-33 program.

    The X-33 CAN is available via the Internet at URL: 

http://procure.msfc.nasa.gov/midrange/presol/notices/notices.ht
ml

                       - end -

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