Orbital Sciences X-34

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Orbital Sciences X-34

Description
Role	Technology Testbed
Crew	Unmanned
First Flight	June 29, 1999 (carried by a Lockheed L-1011)
Manufacturer	Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, VA
Dimensions
Length	58 ft	17.7 m
Wingspan	28 ft	8.5 m
Height	12 ft	3.7 m
Wing area	358 ft²	33.3 m²
Weights
Empty	18,000 lb	8,200 kg
Gross	48,000 lb	21,800 kg

The Orbital Sciences X-34 was intended as a low-cost testbed to demonstrate "key technologies" integratable to the Reusable Launch Vehicle program.

It was intended to be an autonomous pilotless craft powered by a Fastrac rocket engine capable of reaching Mach 8, and performing 25 test flights per year. The unpowered prototype had only been used for towing and captive flight tests when the project was cancelled in 2001 on cost grounds. If a working spacecraft were to come from the X-34 program, it would operate similarly to the space shuttle: it would take off like a rocket, mated with two rocket boosters and an external fuel tank, dock with a space station in the same way the shuttle does with the International Space Station, and land on a runway like an airplane does.

The overall shape of the X-34 is similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey 's Pan Am Orbital Clipper, the Orion III.