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64-437: The FAST 20XX program run from 2009 to 2012 and was intended to provide a technological foundation for the industrial introduction of advanced hypersonic suborbital spaceplanes in the medium to longer term. No detailed vehicle design was planned under the program, with work instead focusing on mastering the technologies required for the development of such designs. Once the needed technologies were identified, researchers developed

128-562: A booster rocket separation failure occurred at an altitude of 50 km during the ascent. However, at this point in the mission the LES had already been ejected and was not used to separate the crew capsule from the rest of the launch vehicle. Backup motors were used to separate the crew capsule resulting in the crew landing safely and uninjured approximately 19 minutes after launch. On September 12, 2022 during Blue Origin New Shepard flight NS-23 ,

192-580: A carrier aircraft. On 7 December 2009, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo , along with its atmospheric mothership "Eve". On 13 December 2018, SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity successfully crossed the US-defined boundary of space (although it has not reached space using the internationally recognised definition of this boundary, which lies at a higher altitude than the US boundary). SpaceShipThree

256-569: A hydrogen-fueled scramjet. The NASP program became the Hypersonic Systems Technology Program (HySTP) in late 1994. HySTP was designed to transfer the accomplishments made in hypersonic flight into a technology development program. On 27 January 1995 the Air Force terminated participation in (HySTP). In 1994, a USAF captain proposed an F-16 sized single-stage-to-orbit peroxide/kerosene spaceplane called " Black Horse ". It

320-571: A launch abort scenario. Although often referred to as a "pusher" arrangement since it lacks a tower, the Dragon 2 LAS removes both the capsule and its trunk together from the launch vehicle. The system is designed to abort with the SuperDraco engines at the top of the abort stack as occurs with a more traditional tractor LAS. The concept was first tested in a Pad Abort test conducted at SLC-40 , Cape Canaveral Air Force Station , on May 6, 2015. SpaceX tested

384-503: A pad worker. During the attempted launch, the booster switched from external to internal power as it normally would do, which then activated the abort sensing system. Originally it was thought that the LES firing was triggered by a gantry arm that tilted the rocket past 7 degrees, meeting one of the defined in-flight abort conditions. The first usage with a crewed mission occurred during the attempt to launch Soyuz T-10-1 on September 26, 1983. The rocket caught fire, just before launch, and

448-661: A partnership between NASDA and NAL (both now part of JAXA ), started in the 1980s. It was positioned for most of its lifetime as one of the main Japanese contributions to the International Space Station , the other being the Japanese Experiment Module . The project was eventually cancelled in 2003, by which point test flights of a sub-scale testbed had flown successfully. AVATAR (Aerobic Vehicle for Hypersonic Aerospace Transportation; Sanskrit : अवतार )

512-516: A purpose-built runway at the Chitradurga Aeronautical Test Range , Karnataka. Launch escape system A launch escape system ( LES ) or launch abort system ( LAS ) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule . It is used in the event of a critical emergency to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, such as an impending explosion. The LES

576-760: A spaceplane must be supplied with power by solar panels and batteries or fuel cells , maneuvered in space , kept in thermal equilibrium, oriented , and communicated with. On-orbit thermal and radiological environments impose additional stresses. This is in addition to accomplishing the task the spaceplane was launched to complete, such as satellite deployment or science experiments. The Space Shuttle used dedicated engines to accomplish orbital maneuvers. These engines used toxic hypergolic propellants that required special handling precautions. Various gases, including helium for pressurization and nitrogen for life support, were stored under high pressure in composite overwrapped pressure vessels . Orbital spacecraft reentering

640-736: A spaceplane to a runway landing, usually to the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC, Florida, or to Rogers Dry Lake in Edwards Air Force Base , California. If the landing occurred at Edwards, the orbiter was flown back to the KSC atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a specially modified Boeing 747 designed to carry the shuttle above it. Download coordinates as: The Buran programme ( Russian : Буран , IPA: [bʊˈran] , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as

704-639: A spaceplane. The X-37 is operated by the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office , in collaboration with United States Space Force , for orbital spaceflight missions intended to demonstrate reusable space technologies . It is a 120-percent-scaled derivative of the earlier Boeing X-40 . The X-37 began as a NASA project in 1999, before being transferred to the United States Department of Defense in 2004. Until 2019,

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768-692: A total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. They launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida . Operational missions launched numerous satellites , interplanetary probes , and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), conducted science experiments in orbit, participated in the Shuttle- Mir program with Russia, and participated in the construction and servicing of the International Space Station (ISS). The Space Shuttle fleet's total mission time

832-568: A twin-engined SSTO spaceplane called Skylon . One NASA analysis showed possible issues with the hot rocket exhaust plumes causing heating of the tail structure at high Mach numbers. although the CEO of Skylon Enterprises Ltd has claimed that reviews by NASA were "quite positive". Bristol Spaceplanes has undertaken design and prototyping of three potential spaceplanes since its founding by David Ashford in 1991. The European Space Agency has endorsed these designs on several occasions. France worked on

896-760: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Suborbital spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space . To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to conventional spacecraft, while sub-orbital spaceplanes tend to be more similar to fixed-wing aircraft . All spaceplanes as of 2024 have been rocket -powered for takeoff and climb, but have then landed as unpowered gliders . Four types of spaceplanes have successfully launched to orbit, reentered Earth's atmosphere , and landed :

960-566: Is a small reusable spaceplane prototype for the ESA Future Launchers Preparatory Programme /FLTP program. SpaceLiner is the most recent project. The Space Rider (Space Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return) is a planned uncrewed orbital lifting body spaceplane aiming to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) with affordable and routine access to space. Contracts for construction of

1024-424: Is expected to have air-breathing scramjet engines as well as rocket engines. Tests with miniature spaceplanes and a working scramjet have been conducted by ISRO in 2016. In April 2023, India successfully conducted an autonomous landing mission of a scaled-down prototype of the spaceplane. The RLV prototype was dropped from a Chinook helicopter at an altitude of 4.5 kms and was made to autonomously glide down to

1088-597: Is shed as heat during re-entry . Many more spaceplanes have been proposed , but none have reached flight status. At least two suborbital rocket-powered aircraft have been launched horizontally into sub-orbital spaceflight from an airborne carrier aircraft before rocketing beyond the Kármán line : the X-15 and SpaceShipOne . Spaceplanes must operate in space, like traditional spacecraft , but also must be capable of atmospheric flight, like an aircraft . These requirements drive up

1152-678: Is similar to the Boeing X-37 . Only a few images have been released since late 2007. A test project, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), has demonstrated lifting reentry technologies and will be extended under the PRIDE programme . The FAST20XX Future High-Altitude High Speed Transport 20XX aims to establish sound technological foundations for the introduction of advanced concepts in suborbital high-speed transportation with air-launch-to-orbit ALPHA vehicle. The Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace RLV

1216-518: Is the need for a carrier plane to launch the suborbital vessel. The second design to be analyzed is based on the German Aerospace Center 's SpaceLiner concept. The SpaceLiner is an all–rocket-propelled vehicle intended to achieve a step change in ultra-fast long-haul passenger and freight transport, with the intended ability to transport 50 passengers from Australia to Europe in 90 minutes. This space - or spaceflight -related article

1280-445: Is the new spacecraft of Virgin Galactic , launched on 30 March 2021. It is also known as VSS Imagine . On 11 July 2021 VSS Unity completed its first fully crewed mission including Sir Richard Branson . The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 was an atmospheric prototype of an intended orbital spaceplane, with the suborbital BOR-4 subscale heat shield test vehicle successfully reentering the atmosphere before program cancellation. HYFLEX

1344-410: Is typically controlled by a combination of automatic rocket failure detection, and a manual activation for the crew commander's use. The LES may be used while the launch vehicle is on the launch pad , or during its ascent. Such systems are usually of three types: The idea of using a rocket to remove the capsule from a space vehicle was developed by Maxime Faget in 1958. The system, using the tower on

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1408-706: The Hermes crewed spaceplane launched by Ariane rocket in the late 20th century, and proposed in January 1985 to go through with Hermes development under the auspices of the ESA. In the 1980s, West Germany funded design work on the MBB Sänger II with the Hypersonic Technology Program. Development continued on MBB/Deutsche Aerospace Sänger II/HORUS until the late 1980s when it was canceled. Germany went on to participate in

1472-534: The Zond program and the TKS program . All of its flights were uncrewed. The Space Shuttle was fitted with ejection seats for the two pilots in the initial test flights, but these were removed once the vehicle was deemed operational and carried additional crew members, which could not be provided with escape hatches. Following the 1986 Challenger disaster , all surviving orbiters were fitted to allow for crew evacuation through

1536-533: The "VKK Space Orbiter programme" ( Russian : ВКК «Воздушно-Космический Корабль» , lit.   'Air and Space Ship'), was a Soviet and later Russian reusable spacecraft project that began in 1974 at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Moscow and was formally suspended in 1993. In addition to being the designation for the whole Soviet/Russian reusable spacecraft project, Buran

1600-454: The "outing" of a highly classified U.S. military two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system with the code name Blackstar . In 2011, Boeing proposed the X-37C, a 165 to 180 percent scale X-37B built to carry up to six passengers to low Earth orbit . The spaceplane was also intended to carry cargo, with both upmass and downmass capacity. The Soviet reusable spacecraft programme has its roots in

1664-422: The 1980s, was an attempt to build a scramjet vehicle capable of operating like an aircraft and achieving orbit like the shuttle. Introduced to the public in 1986, the concept was intended to reach Mach 25, enabling flights between Dulles Airport to Tokyo in two hours, while also being capable of low Earth orbit. Six critical technologies were identified, three relating to the propulsion system, which would consist of

1728-470: The Ariane rocket, Columbus space station and Hermes spaceplane of ESA , Spacelab of ESA-NASA and Deutschland missions (non-U.S. funded Space Shuttle flights with Spacelab). The Sänger II had predicted cost savings of up to 30 percent over expendable rockets. Hopper was one of several proposals for a European reusable launch vehicle (RLV) planned to cheaply ferry satellites into orbit by 2015. One of those

1792-518: The ET. The SRBs were jettisoned before the vehicle reached orbit, while the main engines continued to operate, and the ET was jettisoned after main engine cutoff and just before orbit insertion , which used the orbiter's two Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines. At the conclusion of the mission, the orbiter fired its OMS to deorbit and reenter the atmosphere . The orbiter was protected during reentry by its thermal protection system tiles, and it glided as

1856-506: The Earth's atmosphere must shed significant velocity , resulting in extreme heating . For example, the Space Shuttle thermal protection system (TPS) protects the orbiter's interior structure from surface temperatures that reach as high as 1,650 °C (3,000 °F), well above the melting point of steel. Suborbital spaceplanes fly lower energy trajectories that do not put as much stress on

1920-715: The LAS it was building for the Orion spacecraft to future commercial crew vehicle providers in the wake of the cancellation of the Constellation project. During the Mercury-Redstone 1 mission on November 21, 1960, the escape system unintentionally blasted off from the Mercury spacecraft after the Redstone booster engine shut down just after ignition on the pad. The spacecraft remained attached to

1984-425: The LES carried the crew capsule clear, seconds before the rocket exploded. The crew were subjected to an acceleration of 14 to 17 g (140 to 170 m/s ) for five seconds and were badly bruised. Reportedly, the capsule reached an altitude of 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) and landed 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) from the launch pad. On October 11, 2018 the crew of Soyuz MS-10 separated from their launch vehicle after

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2048-521: The Mercury system. LES continue to be used on the Russian Soyuz and Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft . The SpaceX Dragon 2 uses a hypergolic liquid-fueled launch abort system integrated to the capsule and the Boeing Starliner uses abort thrusters in its service module. The Soviet Vostok and American Gemini spacecraft both made use of ejection seats . The European Space Agency 's Hermes and

2112-722: The Soviet Buran -class spaceplanes would also have made use of them if they had ever flown with crews. As shown by Soyuz T-10a , a LES must be able to carry a crew compartment from the launch pad to a height sufficient for its parachutes to open. Consequently, they must make use of large, powerful (and heavy) solid rockets . The Soyuz launch escape system is called CAC or SAS , from the Russian/ transliterated Russian Система Аварийного Спасения or Sistema Avariynogo Spaseniya , meaning emergency rescue system. The Soviet Proton launcher has flown dozens of times with an escape tower, under

2176-525: The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program . Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from the 1969 plan led by U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. The first ( STS-1 ) of four orbital test flights occurred in 1981, leading to operational flights ( STS-5 ) beginning in 1982. Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on

2240-638: The U.S. Space Shuttle , Russian Buran , U.S. X-37 , and the Chinese Shenlong . Another, Dream Chaser , is under development in the U.S. As of 2024 all past and current orbital spaceplanes launch vertically ; some are carried as a payload in a conventional fairing, while the Space Shuttle used its own engines with the assistance of boosters and an external tank. Orbital spaceflight takes place at high velocities, with orbital kinetic energies typically greater than suborbital trajectories. This kinetic energy

2304-664: The academic Boris Chertok , recounts how the programme came into being. According to Chertok, after the U.S. developed its Space Shuttle program, the Soviet military became suspicious that it could be used for military purposes, due to its enormous payload, several times that of previous U.S. launch vehicles. Officially, the Buran orbital vehicle was designed for the delivery to orbit and return to Earth of spacecraft, cosmonauts, and supplies. Both Chertok and Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy (General Designer and General Director of NPO Molniya ) suggest that from

2368-427: The atmosphere for an extended period of time. This environment induces high dynamic pressure, high temperature, and high heat flow loads particularly upon the leading edge surfaces of the spaceplane, requiring exterior surfaces to be constructed from advanced materials and/or use active cooling . The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by

2432-426: The beginning, the programme was military in nature; however, the exact military capabilities, or intended capabilities, of the Buran programme remain classified. The Soviet Union first considered a preliminary design of rocket-launch small spaceplane Lapotok in early 1960s. The Spiral airspace system with small orbital spaceplane and rocket as second stage was developed in the 1960s–1980s. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105

2496-459: The booster on the ground. An accidental pad firing of a launch escape system occurred during the attempted launch of the uncrewed Soyuz 7K-OK No.1 spacecraft on December 14, 1966. The vehicle's strap-on boosters did not ignite, preventing the rocket from leaving the pad. About 30 minutes later, while the vehicle was being secured, the LES engine fired. Separation charges started a fire in the rocket's third stage, leading to an explosion that killed

2560-498: The bullet-shaped protective launch shroud. Under NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program Blue Origin was awarded $ 3.7 million for development of an innovative 'pusher' LAS, it is used on the New Shepard Crew Capsule . Also under NASA's CCDev program, SpaceX was awarded $ 75 million for the development of their own version of a "pusher" LAS. Their Dragon 2 spacecraft uses its SuperDraco engines during

2624-487: The complexity, risk, dry mass, and cost of spaceplane designs. The following sections will draw heavily on the US Space Shuttle as the biggest, most complex, most expensive, most flown, and only crewed orbital spaceplane, but other designs have been successfully flown. The flight trajectory required to reach orbit results in significant aerodynamic loads, vibrations, and accelerations, all of which have to be withstood by

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2688-461: The dedicated analytical, numerical and experimental tools needed to investigate them. The project also looked at the legal and regulatory issues related to suborbital flight in consultation with government and international authorities. Two concepts have been focused on under the program. The first, ALPHA, is based on SpaceShipOne , which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2003. A key aspect of the design

2752-411: The late 1950s, at the very beginning of the space age. The idea of Soviet reusable space flight is very old, though it was neither continuous nor consistently organized. Before Buran, no project of the programme reached operational status. The first step toward a reusable Soviet spacecraft was the 1954 Burya , a high-altitude prototype jet aircraft/cruise missile. Several test flights were made before it

2816-579: The main ingress/egress hatch (using a specially developed parachute system that could be worn over a spacesuit), although only when the Shuttle was in a controlled glide. The Orion spacecraft which was developed to follow the Space Shuttle program uses a Mercury and Apollo-style escape rocket system, while an alternative system, called the Max Launch Abort System (MLAS), was investigated and would have used existing solid-rocket motors integrated into

2880-617: The paraglider began in 1963. By December 1963, the parachute was ready to undergo full-scale deployment testing, while the paraglider had run into technical difficulties. Though attempts to revive the paraglider concept persisted within NASA and North American Aviation , in 1964 development was definitively discontinued due to the expense of overcoming the technical hurdles. The Space Shuttle underwent many variations during its conceptual design phase. Some early concepts are illustrated. The Rockwell X-30 National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), begun in

2944-531: The postwar US considered winged versions of the V-2 rocket, and in the 1950s and '60s winged rocket designs inspired science fiction artists, filmmakers, and the general public. The U.S. Air Force invested some effort in a paper study of a variety of spaceplane projects under their Aerospaceplane efforts of the late 1950s, but later reduced the scope of the project. The result, the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar ,

3008-469: The program was managed by Air Force Space Command . Two piloted suborbital rocket-powered aircraft have reached space: the North American X-15 and SpaceShipOne ; a third, SpaceShipTwo , has crossed the US-defined boundary of space but has not reached the higher internationally recognised boundary. None of these crafts were capable of entering orbit, and all were first lifted to high altitude by

3072-441: The same name would be used as a service module for the International Space Station . After Zvezda, there was a hiatus in reusable projects until Buran. The Buran orbital vehicle programme was developed in response to the U.S. Space Shuttle program, which raised considerable concerns among the Soviet military and especially Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov . An authoritative chronicler of the Soviet and later Russian space programme,

3136-515: The service module that can propel the spacecraft away from its Atlas V launch vehicle in the event of an emergency on the pad or during ascent. The engines, which use hypergolic propellants and generate 40,000 pounds-force of thrust each, are provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne . The abort system was tested successfully during the Starliner's pad abort test on November 4, 2019 at White Sands Missile Range . Orbital Sciences Corporation intends to sell

3200-411: The spacecraft thermal protection system. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster was the direct result of a TPS failure. Aerodynamic control surfaces must be actuated . Landing gear must be included at the cost of additional mass. An air-breathing orbital spaceplane would have to fly what is known as a 'depressed trajectory,' which places the vehicle in the high-altitude hypersonic flight regime of

3264-524: The system on January 19, 2020 during a full-scale simulation of a Falcon 9 rocket malfunction at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 , from where it has later launched crews to the International Space Station. The second crewed spacecraft selected by NASA for its CCDEV program was Boeing 's CST-100 Starliner , which, like SpaceX's Dragon 2 spacecraft, uses a "pusher" launch escape system, consisting of four launch abort engines mounted on

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3328-732: The top of the space capsule to house rockets, was first used on a test of the Project Mercury capsule in March 1959. Historically, LES were used on American Mercury and Apollo spacecraft. Both designs used a solid-fuel rocket motor. The Mercury LES was built by the Grand Central Rocket Company in Redlands, California (which later became the Lockheed Propulsion Company ). Apollo used a design that had many similarities to

3392-608: The vehicle and ground infrastructure were signed in December 2020. Its maiden flight is currently scheduled for the third quarter of 2025. As of 2012 , the Indian Space Research Organisation is developing a launch system named the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV). It is India's first step towards realizing a two-stage-to-orbit reusable launch system . A space plane serves as the second stage. The plane

3456-502: The vehicle structure. If the launch vehicle suffers a catastrophic malfunction, a conventional capsule spacecraft is propelled to safety by a launch escape system . The Space Shuttle was far too big and heavy for this approach to be viable, resulting in a number of abort modes that may or may not have been survivable. In any case, the Challenger disaster demonstrated that the Space Shuttle lacked survivability on ascent. Once on-orbit,

3520-488: Was 'Phoenix', a German project which is a one-seventh scale model of the Hopper concept vehicle. The suborbital Hopper was a Future European Space Transportation Investigations Programme system study design A test project, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), has demonstrated lifting reentry technologies and will be extended under the PRIDE programme . HOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by

3584-512: Was 1,323 days. Space Shuttle components include the Orbiter Vehicle (OV) with three clustered Rocketdyne RS-25 main engines, a pair of recoverable solid rocket boosters (SRBs), and the expendable external tank (ET) containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen . The Space Shuttle was launched vertically , like a conventional rocket, with the two SRBs operating in parallel with the orbiter's three main engines , which were fueled from

3648-563: Was a concept explored by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) around 1968 for launching payloads weighing as much as 2,300 kg (5,000 lb) into orbit. It was never constructed. In the 1980s, British Aerospace began development of HOTOL , an SSTO spaceplane powered by a revolutionary SABRE air-breathing rocket engine, but the project was canceled due to technical and financial uncertainties. The inventor of SABRE set up Reaction Engines to develop SABRE and proposed

3712-418: Was a concept study for an uncrewed single-stage reusable spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing , presented to India's Defence Research and Development Organisation . The mission concept was for low cost military and commercial satellite launches. Shenlong ( Chinese : 神龙 ; pinyin : shén lóng ; lit. 'divine dragon') is a proposed Chinese robotic spaceplane that

3776-421: Was a crewed test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing. In the early 2000s the orbital 'cosmoplane' ( Russian : космоплан ) was proposed by Russia's Institute of Applied Mechanics as a passenger transport. According to researchers, it could take about 20 minutes to fly from Moscow to Paris , using hydrogen and oxygen-fueled engines. The Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device (MUSTARD)

3840-505: Was a miniaturized suborbital demonstrator launched in 1996, flying to 110 km altitude, achieving hypersonic flight , and successfully reentering the atmosphere . Various types of spaceplanes have been suggested since the early twentieth century. Notable early designs include a spaceplane equipped with wings made of combustible alloys that it would burn during its ascent, and the Silbervogel bomber concept. World War II Germany and

3904-506: Was also the name given to orbiter 1K , which completed one uncrewed spaceflight in 1988 and was the only Soviet reusable spacecraft to be launched into space. The Buran-class orbiters used the expendable Energia rocket as a launch vehicle . The Boeing X-37 , also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft . It is boosted into space by a launch vehicle , then re-enters Earth's atmosphere and lands as

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3968-620: Was cancelled by order of the Central Committee . The Burya had the goal of delivering a nuclear payload, presumably to the United States, and then returning to base. The Burya programme was cancelled by the USSR in favor of a decision to develop ICBMs instead. The next iteration of a reusable spacecraft was the Zvezda design, which also reached a prototype stage. Decades later, another project with

4032-574: Was to have been the first orbital spaceplane, but was canceled in the early 1960s in lieu of NASA 's Project Gemini and the U.S. Air Force's crewed spaceflight program. In 1961, NASA originally planned to have the Gemini spacecraft land on a runway with a Rogallo wing airfoil , rather than an ocean landing under parachutes . The test vehicle became known as the Paraglider Research Vehicle . Development work on both parachutes and

4096-456: Was to take off almost empty and undergo aerial refueling before rocketing to orbit. The Lockheed Martin X-33 was a 1/3 scale prototype made as part of an attempt by NASA to build a SSTO hydrogen-fuelled spaceplane VentureStar that failed when the hydrogen tank design could not be constructed as intended. On 5 March 2006, Aviation Week & Space Technology published a story purporting to be

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