Space Shuttle - The Next Generation Lockheed Martin To Build A Reusable Spacecraft For The 21st Century

Call it the flying wedge.

Amid considerable drama and with much at stake, NASA unveiled its next-generation spaceship Tuesday - the futuristic , a triangular, flat-bottomed marvel designed to whisk more people and cargo into orbit than the space shuttle it could replace by 2007.

If all goes well - and it rarely does - the new rocket will be lighter, cheaper to operate and more reliable than the shuttle. It will blast off 30 times a year, though not necessarily from the Kennedy Space Center, a possible setback for Florida.

It could fly by remote control, making astronauts optional or even obsolete. Nevertheless, it could ferry hundreds of people into space each year, rather than a few dozen. Among those who might one day buckle their shoulder belts: tourists willing to pay $100,000 or more.

“This is the craft that can carry America’s dreams aloft and launch our nation into a sparkling new century,” said Vice President Al Gore, who announced the winning design - one of three submitted by aerospace companies - during a ceremony in Pasadena, Calif.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the importance of this moment.”

Such talk has been heard before. When the space shuttle was proposed nearly 25 years ago, boosters - the human variety - predicted 60 flights a year. Hobbled by glitches, high costs and long turnaround times, shuttles have never flown more than nine missions a year.

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin challenged aerospace firms to design a better spaceship.

The marching orders: It must be a self-contained, single-stage craft - able to reach orbit without shedding fuel tanks or external rockets. It must be constructed of lightweight composite materials. It must carry cargo for a fraction of the $10,000-per-pound cost of the shuttle.

The bait: $900 million in NASA development funds.

The winner: Lockheed Martin Corp., one of three California-based companies that accepted Goldin’s challenge.

Lockheed’s proposal resembles a giant, flying slice of chocolate cream pie - dark on the bottom, white on top. Like the shuttle, it will take off vertically and land horizontally. Like the shuttle, it will not be capable of traveling to the moon or beyond.

The other contenders were Rockwell International Corp., which offered a shuttle look-alike, and McDonnell Douglas Corp., which proposed a ship that could land vertically, evoking memories of NASA’s greatest achievement the lunar landing module.

Using NASA’s $900 million, Lockheed will build a half-size prototype of the X-33. The model is scheduled to make its inaugural flight in 1999.

With luck, a full-size X-33 - likely to be called VentureStar - will be in orbit in 10 or 11 years, replacing shuttles designed in the 1970s and rapidly becoming obsolete. The computers in many American homes are more powerful than those aboard the four shuttles.

The shuttles’ problems have carried over to NASA itself. Foreign rivals now ferry a majority of the satellites and other cargo destined for space.

Graphic: A winning design