The X-33 was the prototype replacement for the Space Shuttle and would feature a range of cutting-edge technologies that would make much cheaper to operate and quicker to turn around with much less personal.
Although 95% of the components had been made and delivered and a new flight centre had been built it was cancelled in a shock decision that would put back the reusable space program years. Was this NASA's biggest mistake of recent years or was it just too advanced for the time, in this video we look at the X-33 and the reason why it ended up being scrapped.
The VentureStar may now be nothing more than a memory, but it nearly became part of NASA’s future ambitions – playing a role as part of a commercial fleet and even an option for the US Air Force. However, controversial key decisions – and a major test failure – during the construction of the technology demonstrator, the X-33, saw the program cancelled just as the first vehicles were being constructed. X-33:
Taking shape at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility, the X-33 was intended to be a 1/3 scale prototype of a fully-operational RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle) called the VentureStar, designed to dramatically lower the costs of launching payloads into space. However, the official reasons for its demise fail to portray the true story.
Read a full and frank account of what REALLY happened HERE