VentureStar
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X-33_Venture_Star.jpg
VentureStar was Lockheed-Martin's proposed design for a SSTO RLV. The program's primary goal was to develop a reusable space plane for shuttling astronauts to and from the ISS. VentureStar was to be a commercial endeavor and flights would have been leased by Lockheed-Martin, for example, to NASA.
A small-scale prototype of VentureStar, co-funded by NASA and called the X-33 was near completion when the program was cancelled on March 1, 2001. The X-33 was plagued by test failures, schedule setbacks, and cost-overruns, which contributed to its cancellation. Over US$1 billion had been spent between NASA and Lockheed-Martin.
The VentureStar was to be a single stage to orbit vehicle. It would take off vertically and land like an airplane and was to use aerospike engines.
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