The Navy's Giant Hangar That Housed The Hindenburg Hides A Mock Aircraft Carrier Inside By Tyler Rogoway Posted in The War Zone
NASA kicked off the program that would lead to the unmanned X-34 in 1996 . The Marshall Space Flight Center , situated within the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, was responsible for the project.
The main goal was to develop a testbed that could help rapidly trial new technologies for a future low-cost reusable space vehicle. In addition, the program would serve as an opportunity for NASA to explore improved management processes for fast-track development and testing of advanced systems.
One of the X-34s.
A major impetus for the program was the desire to lay the groundwork for a space access platform that would be significantly cheaper than the Space Shuttle. NASA wanted to drop the price per pound of payload sent into orbit from $10,000 to $1,000, according to one official fact sheet . The total cost per flight would be no more than $500,000 .
In addition, a decade earlier, a tragic accident resulted in the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger and her entire crew, an event that had already prompted both NASA and the U.S. military to begin exploring alternative means of getting into orbit. After the disaster, NASA only took delivery of one additional Space Shuttle, Endeavour, in 1991, specifically to replace Challenger.
Orbital Sciences Corporation subsequently received the contract to build what became known as the X-34. The company rolled out the first vehicle, known as the X-34A-1, on April 30, 1999, and subsequently delivered it to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center , now called the Armstrong Flight Research Center , situated within Edward Air Force Base in California.
A picture of the X-34A-1 rollout ceremony on April 30, 1999.