Word: venturestar
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...fact, the importance of choosing the VentureStar was twofold. Not only is it the first new U.S. rocket design in 25 years, but it also represents the first space shuttle to be drafted, built, tested and maintained by private enterprise--allowing NASA to get out of the space cargo business and back to...well, to pure rocket science...
...hometown crowd at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, reacted even before Vice President Al Gore announced which of three hotly competitive designs had been chosen as the space shuttle of the future. Lockheed Martin's VentureStar, which would be built in nearby Palmdale, looks like no other spacecraft, and when Gore reached for a model airship shaped like a giant piece of pie, the group burst into applause. Undaunted, the Vice President plunged on with his scripted gag, "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the importance of this moment...
...half-size, 67-ft. prototype of the VentureStar called the X-33 is scheduled to fly in 1999, the finished craft in 2006. NASA and Lockheed claim that the innovations will shrink the shuttle's price-per-payload-pound from $10,000 to $1,000, slash repair and inspection costs and reduce turnaround time from weeks to days. Goldin envisions fleets of VentureStars launching satellites, hauling material back and forth to space stations and ferrying tourists into orbit. "Many people have aspirations of going into space," he says. "They should be able to live those...
They might, if the folks with the wherewithal to fund Lockheed's venture are convinced they'll get a return on that investment. Without government guarantees, the private sector may not be willing to put up the $4 billion to $8 billion needed to launch the VentureStar. If it doesn't, the Europeans could inherit the space-launch business. Permanently...
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