Orbital Sciences X-34
Concept Led By: NASA
Companies Involved: Orbital Sciences
You may remember we referenced the X-33 spacecraft that Lockheed Martin worked on as a smaller version of the VentureStar. Yet these “test” models are not specific to any company, leading us to the X-34 rocket. It was meant to be a low-cost testbed for demonstrating several major technologies that could then be used for the Reusable Launch Vehicle program. The plan for the X-34 was for it to be an autonomous pilotless craft that would be powered using the Fastrac liquid-propellant rocket engine. It would be capable of even reaching Mach-8 and even conducting up to 25 test flights annually. This initially began as a program for the suborbital reusable rocket technology demonstrator.
Back in 2001, the first flight vehicle was already near completion but the program ended due to a decreased budget. They had initially planned out using a little under $112 million, with $85.7 million of that going to Orbital Sciences due to being awarded the original contract. $16 million of this was set to come from NASA and other government organizations, and Orbital Sciences planned to use $10 million of its own to adapt the L-1011 carrier to the X-34. Yet in spite of being nearly done, NASA canned the project at the end of March 2001. It was one of the better spacecraft designs that would have helped NASA a lot. However, from 2001 on, NASA’s budget seemed to constantly shrink.