The Delta Clipper
was a proposed
VTOL orbital vehicle. The DC-X and later DC-XA (derived from the DC-X) were low-speed, reusable test-vehicles built by
McDonnell Douglas
which flew 12 times between 1993-96, until suffering major fire damage
after falling over when a leg failed to deploy on landing. On a total
budget of about $100 million provided mainly by the US Department of
Defense (DoD) and
McDonnell Douglas
Aerospace, they demonstrated that reusable rocket vehicles can be flown
repeatedly and routinely by a small team - essentially like an
aircraft.
Having inherited the project from the DoD, NASA cancelled it after spending some $40 million. Instead, NASA spent $1,300 million over 5 years on the
X-33 and
X-34, neither of which ever flew before being cancelled. Go figure!
It's notable that, apart from its computers, the DC-X
could have been built 30 years earlier - and indeed a proposal for such
a vehicle was made at that time by the Douglas company, a fore-runner
of McDonnell-Douglas. Why it wasn't built, and why NASA cancelled the the DC-XA, are key to the stagnation in the space industry.
was a proposed
VTOL orbital vehicle. The DC-X and later DC-XA (derived from the DC-X) were low-speed, reusable test-vehicles built by
McDonnell Douglas
which flew 12 times between 1993-96, until suffering major fire damage
after falling over when a leg failed to deploy on landing. On a total
budget of about $100 million provided mainly by the US Department of
Defense (DoD) and
McDonnell Douglas
Aerospace, they demonstrated that reusable rocket vehicles can be flown
repeatedly and routinely by a small team - essentially like an
aircraft.
Having inherited the project from the DoD, NASA
cancelled it after spending some $40 million. Instead, NASA spent $1,300 million over 5 years on the
X-33 and
X-34, neither of which ever flew before being cancelled. Go figure!
It's notable that, apart from its computers, the DC-X
could have been built 30 years earlier - and indeed a proposal for such
a vehicle was made at that time by the Douglas company, a fore-runner
of McDonnell-Douglas. Why it wasn't built, and why NASA cancelled the the DC-XA, are key to the stagnation in the space industry.
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