VentureStar: 21st Century Space Shuttle

摘要

We have seen the future of space launchers, and it looks like a potato. A potato with a '61 Cadillac rear end. That's the shape of the X-33, an experimental aerospace vehicle that will fly in early 1999, lifting off vertically like a conventional rocket, reaching speeds of more than 11,000 mph, and gliding to an airplane-runway landing. In July, NASA selected Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works to build and test the X-33. The wingless vehicle will be broad and rounded, with large stabilizing fins sprouting from its chopped-off tail. No cockpit will break its smooth contours, because the X-33 will have an autonomous flight control system instead of a pilot.