Reusable Launch Vehicle

About

Narrated by Apollo 12 astronaut and DC-X flight manager Pete Conrad, this is an introduction to the Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X) reusable launch vehicle test project. It was initiated by the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) and built by McDonnell Douglas corporation. This is a test article for a fully Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) to send people and payloads to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The DC-X was part of SDIO's Single Stage To Orbit (SSTO) program. The goal is to make space travel affordable in our lifetime. There is also mention of NASA's X-33 test program.

"Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Program" video is a promotional piece developed with the help of the Space Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group devoted to promoting a private space industry and eventually settlements beyond Earth orbit. It describes how McDonnell Douglas applied concepts from its commercial aviation division to rocketry logistics: low cost, reusability, flexibility, and multiple markets.

After 6:19, another video starts showing several of the DC-X launches, and a different narrator describes the result of each flight. It shows flights 1 through 8, from 1993 to 1995. The narrator mentions the hand-off of the DC-X project to NASA, which calls it the DC-XA Clipper Graham.

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Internet Archive, in Ephemeral films

Licence or status

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Credit

McDonnell Douglas

Language

English

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