2-839-311 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Model, X-33 VentureStar Reusable Launch Vehicle, 1990s. In 1996 NASA selected Lockheed Martin to build and fly the X-33 test vehicle to demonstrate advanced technologies for a new reusable launch vehicle to succeed the Space Shuttle. VentureStar was Lockheed's name for this future spaceplane concept. The Lockheed Skunk Works designed a lifting body shape with aerospike rocket engines and a metallic thermal protection system as a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle. The program was a joint NASA-industry effort to develop a new commercial launch vehicle, and the model bears decals of all the participating companies. NASA cancelled the project in 2001 before any test flights were carried out after some technical problems proved too difficult to solve. This model is a relic of an ambitious but failed attempt to validate a new spaceplane concept. NASA transferred the model to the Museum in 2006.