dc x rollout report mcdonnell douglas rolls out dc x huntington beach calif on a picture perfect southern california day mcdonnell douglas rolled out its dc x rocket ship last saturday the company hopes this single stage rocket technology demonstrator will be the first step towards a single stage to orbit ssto rocket ship the white conical vehicle was scheduled to go to the white sands missile range in new mexico this week flight tests will start in mid june although there wasn t a cloud in the noonday sky the forecast for ssto research remains cloudy the sdi organization which paid million for the dc x can t itself afford to fund full development of a follow on vehicle to get the necessary hundreds of millions required for a sub orbital dc xa sdio is passing a tin cup among its sister government agencies sdio originally funded ssto research as a way to cut the costs for orbital deployments of space based sensors and weapns however recent changes in sdi s political marching orders and budget cuts have made ssto less of a priority today the agency is more interested in using dc x as a step towards a low cost reusable sounding rocket sdio has already done briefings to other government agencies said col simon pete worden sdio s deputy for technology but worden declined to say how much the agencies would have to pony up for the program i didn t make colonel by telling my contractors how much money i have available to spend he quipped at a press conference at mcdonnell douglas astronautics headquarters while sdio has lowered its sights on the program s orbital objective agency officials hail the dc x as an example of the better faster cheaper approach to hardware development the agency believes this philosophy can produce breakthroughs that leapfrog ahead of evolutionary technology developments worden said the dc x illustrates how a build a little test a little approach can produce results on time and within budget he said the program which went from concept to hardware in around months showed how today s engineers could move beyond the miracles of our parents time the key is management worden said sdio had a very light hand on this project we had only one overworked major jess sponable although the next phase may involve more agencies worden said lean management and a sense of government industry partnership will be crucial it s essential we do not end up with a large management structure where the price goes up exponentially sdio s approach also won praise from two california members of the house science space and technology committee this is the direction we re going to have to go said rep george brown the committee s democratic chairman programs that stretch aout to years aren t sustainable nasa hasn t learned it yet sdio has rep dana rohrbacher brown s republican colleague went further joking that a shrimp is a fish designed by a nasa design team rohrbacher doubted that the program ever would have been completed if it were left to the civil space agency rohrbacher whose orange county district includes mcdonnell douglas also criticized nasa air force work on conventional multi staged rockets as placing new casings around old missile technology let s not build fancy ammunition with capsules on top let s build a spaceship although rohrbacher praised sdio s sponsorship he said the private sector needs to take the lead in developing ssto technology mcdonnell douglas which faces very uncertain prospects with its c transport and space station freedom programs were more cautious about a large private secotro commitment on very large ventures companies put in seed money said charles ordahl mcdonnell douglas senior vice president for space systems you need strong government investments while the government and industry continue to differ on funding for the dc xa they agree on continuing an incremental approach to development citing corporate history they liken the process to douglas aircraft s dc aircraft just as two earlier aircraft paved the way for the dc transport a gradual evolution in single stage rocketry could eventually lead to an orbital delta clipper dc flight tests this summer at white sands will expand the envelope of performance with successive tests increasing speed and altitude the first tests will reach feet and demonstrate hovering verticle take off and landing the second series will send the unmanned dc x up to feet the third and final series will take the craft up to feet maneuvers will become more complex on third phase the final tests will include a pitch over manever that rotates the vehicle back into a bottom down configuration for a soft four legged landing the flight test series will be supervised by charles pete conrad who performed similar maneuvers on the apollo moon landing now a mcdonnell douglas vice president conrad paised the vehicles aircraft like approach to operations features include automated check out and access panels for easy maintainance if the program moves to the next stage engine technology will become a key consideration this engine would have more thrust than the pratt whitney rl a engines used on the dc x each motor uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants to generate up to pounds of thrust based on the engine used in centaur upper stages the a model has a thrust champer designed for sea level operation and three to on throttling capability it also is designed for repeat firings and rapid turnaround worden said future single stage rockets could employ tri propellant engine technology developed in the former soviet union the resulting engines could burn a dense hydrocarbon fuel at takeoff and then switch to liquid hydrogen at higher altitudes the mechanism for the teaming may already be in place pratt has a technology agreement with npo energomash the design bureau responsible for the tri propellant and energia cryogenic engines
