NASA has killed the experimental space plane program that was the centerpiece of its effort to develop a new generation of vehicles for space travel, the Washington Postreported today.
NASA had invested five years and $1.3 billion in the X-33, an unpiloted prototype designed to pave the way for a larger vehicle called VentureStar that could carry people and cargo.
But the effort fell victim to technical setbacks, cost problems and a collapse in the anticipated launch market, officials told the newspaper.
According to the Post, the X-33 program had been in trouble for some time, and a target of critics who warned it was too ambitious.
The newspaper said for these and other reasons, the Clinton administration had last year won congressional approval for a new initiative that will spend $4.5 billion over five years to test the most promising new technologies in a long list of key categories, including propulsion systems, orbital ferries and crew survivability techniques.
The X-33 and a smaller suborbital test vehicle called X-34 were eliminated in the just-concluded first round of competition for this new funding, the Postsaid.