NASA
has recently admitted that the
X-34
project, touted with the
X-33
as the route to reducing launch costs, is at an impasse. Readers will remember that in 1995, as a result of the great success of the
DC-X
reusable rocket funded by the Defence Department,
NASA
announced its own
RLV
program - with the
X-33
and
X-34
reusable rockets as its centre-pieces. Both were to start a series of progressive demonstration flights in 1999, leading on to low-cost launch vehicles.