LOCKHEED LANDS CONTRACT : SPACECRAFT TO GENERATE 2,000 JOBS.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox and Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writers

Southern California's aerospace fortunes soared Tuesday as Lockheed Martin Corp.'s fabled ``Skunk Works'' won the $1 billion NASA design competition for an experimental launch vehicle that could make space travel less expensive and more available to the masses.

The winning proposal, announced by Vice President Al Gore at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will take shape at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works facility in Palmdale and generate about 2,000 jobs for the region.

Lockheed Martin's wedge-shape design, a reusable lifting body called VentureStar, beat out entries from Rockwell International Corp. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. It's the country's first new rocket project in 25 years and is intended to eventually replace the space shuttle as the workhorse craft that ferries astronauts, experiments, satellites and equipment into orbit.

The winner's identity was also one of the best-kept secrets in Washington recently. The vice president did not know who won until seconds before unveiling it to about 200 JPL employees, aerospace executives and government officials. Rather than announce it, Gore lifted up a box to reveal a model of the winning design.

``You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the importance of this moment,'' Gore said. ``Today we stand beneath a California sun and reach our arms toward the heavens. With years of hard work and determined leadership still ahead, this is the craft that can carry America's dreams aloft and launch our nation into a sparkling new century.''

The craft, known at NASA as the X-33, is a one-stage-to-orbit vehicle. It will take off vertically and land horizontally.

The Skunk Works, known for designing super-fast and stealthy airplanes, will build a test craft that will be about half the size of the next generation of spaceships called reusable launch vehicles.

The VentureStar flights - scheduled to begin in March 1999 - are designed to demonstrate the technical and financial feasibility of creating a fleet of new spaceships. Initial plans call for three full-size reusable launch vehicles to be ready by about 2003 or 2004.

``In the coming century, thousands of new companies will be doing business in space,'' said Norman R. Augustine, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin. ``We are very excited by the challenge of applying cutting-edge technology to the solution of a business problem - dramatically reducing the cost of going into space.''

Lockheed's VentureStar looks like a more aerodynamic version of the space shuttle. But absent are the huge external fuel tanks that the shuttle now rides piggyback into space.

The new craft's skin is made of heat-resistant metal, rather than coated with ceramic tiles.

The power plant is a linear aerospike engine that adjusts itself to perform with maximum efficiency at all altitudes. They will be built by an old shuttle hand, Rockwell's Rocketdyne Division in Canoga Park. Rockwell will build four engines for the test program.

Two engines will be used for ground tests and two will be installed on the X-33 for a series of suborbital flight tests up to speeds faster than 15 times the speed of sound. The rocket will not be powerful enough to fly into space but it will go high enough and fast enough to test materials that will be used on bigger vehicles designed to reach orbit.

Unmanned test flights will launch from Edwards Air Force Base for destinations in the Western United States.

Additionally, Rocketdyne will design and build a full-scale prototype aerospike engine for Lockheed Martin's reusable launch vehicle. The total value of the program to Rocketdyne is about $270 million. But the division does not plan any additional hiring.

``The knowledge we've gained from 25 years' experience with the space shuttle main engine allows us to take the next big step forward, with a high-performance, reusable engine that costs substantially less to develop and operate,'' said Rocketdyne President Paul Smith. ``The engine is a key component in achieving affordable access to space, and this technology features simplified, long-life components and reduced engine development costs.''

The engine fills the base of the spacecraft, which reduces drag. It does not have a bell-shape nozzle found on traditional rocket engines.

The engine's plume will change shape as the craft ascends through the atmosphere, maintaining very high performance profile throughout flight. The propellants are liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Engine life is expected to be 100 missions.

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin characterized the project as a ``radical departure'' from the way the space agency has done business in the past. For example, rather than submit written proposals, which could have denuded a small forest, the competitors turned in CD-ROMs.

The agency's goal is reducing the cost of putting a pound of equipment in space from $10,000 to $1,000.

``We want to develop technologies that will allow the industry to build a vehicle that takes days, not months, to turn around; dozens, not thousands of people to operate,'' Goldin said.

The program also is designed to relieve NASA of the burden of developing high-risk technologies and place it on private industry.

NASA will invest $940 million in the project through 1999. Lockheed Martin will put up $220 million in the joint program.

Also, each company proposal had to include a business plan on how it would finance a full-scale rocket and operate it at a profit.

This could lead to a fleet of privately owned spaceships that could be used for commercial and recreational purposes.

``Now we fly dozens of astronauts a year. This vehicle should allow hundreds a year to fly, and vehicles that come beyond it to allow thousands of people to fly. If a commercial company wants to fly people into space, NASA will applaud them,'' Goldin said.

Initially, though, the X-33 will put people back to work, good news in an industry segment that has hemorrhaged jobs since the early 1990s.

``Two thousand jobs - that helps California. A billion dollars helps California,'' said U.S. Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, who represents Palmdale. ``We have a lot of people looking for jobs.''

And they will be filled fast, said Gene Austin, NASA's X-33 program manager who is setting up shop next week in Palmdale.

``We've got to ramp up fast,'' he said. ``We've got to start bringing people on board now.''

The entire Los Angeles region will benefit, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County.

``I think it's a very visible message to the world that the aerospace industry in Southern California is not dead,'' he said.

Some industry analysts expressed surprise that Lockheed won, noting that McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell have more experience in manned space flight.

``Frankly, they were the dark horse of the three,'' said Howard Rubel, an analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, drawing

PHOTO (1 -- colro) NASA administrator Daniel Go ldin, left, and Vice President Al Gore unveil a model of the X-33.

(2 -- color) Lockheed Martin will build the X-33 at its ``Skunk Works'' plant in Palmdale.

David Sprague/Daily News

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