Jul 272010
Circa August 1995. There are some notable differences between this and the final configuration.
9 Responses to “Early McDonnell-Douglas X-33”
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Circa August 1995. There are some notable differences between this and the final configuration.
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Interesting a sort of DC-X’s heir…. but not related with the actual Lockheed-Martin X-33 anyway.
Probably NASA decided to swap the number from the MDC reusable rocket to the LM spaceplane.
This was McD-D’s proposal for the X-33 program, based on their DC-X SDI-funded demonstrator. Rockwell proposed a conventional wing-body vehicle and Lockheed the LS200-like shape that eventually won the contract.
Why doesn’t any of this good stuff ever get built?
Seems to me anyone who wants their own space program and has lots of money could get all the plans from a few websites.
Although I assume the painting is supposed to show it ascending from a desert area, it looks like it’s blasting off from Mars.
Well, if it can take off from Earth, Mars should be a snap…
Once you get it there that is..
Randy
I am wholeheartedly in favor of launching things like this from the surface of Mars.
It’s one of the last hand drawn images. Jack Frassanito did most of NASA’s CG work with the X-33 program on.. hHe’s actually the guy who got me into doing work for NASA, before that I was doing SFX modeling.
> I am wholeheartedly in favor of launching things like this from the surface of Mars.
So is the Earth Alliance.
(Obscure?)
Who was it that said. It is a rocket ship that landed and took off the way God and Robert Heilein intended a rocket ship to travel.