After the Delta Clipper came the X-33. And before the decision was made to award the project to Lockheed, McDonnell-Douglas was in the running, basing their X-33 on their Delta Clipper.

When they lost X-33, the Delta Clipper idea and design faded into extinction.

‘Cept it seems to be back now:

New player Masten eyes Space Coast for launches, research

Some notable changes in the design, of course, but the heritage is obvious.

I kinda wonder about the future. It seems reasonably obvious that from the NASA/national point of view, the future of manned spaceflight is pretty damn bleak. The Orion capsule is a useful space taxi… but to where? NASA has no real plans on going *anywhere.* And come January 2017, the new President could sweep what little planning there is away. But from the point of view of private companies, from SpaceX and Blue Origin to Virgin Galactic and Masten and Xcor, things seem remarkably hopeful. It’s been distressingly obvious for some years now that, despite my earlier hopes and dreams and training and work and career, I’ll play no part… but it’s good to see that chances are good that *someone* will.

Anybody need a used, factory-second and obsolete aerospace engineer?