Lockheed comes up with new reusable space vehicle.

Spacecraft would be successor or sister ship to shuttle

Engineers at Lockheed Corp.'s famous Skunk Works research facility have designed a new one-stage, reusable space vehicle that could be a successor or sister ship to the space shuttles.

The vehicle, if it is built, would be powered by engines designed several years ago by Canoga Park-based Rocketdyne, the division of Rockwell International Inc. that made the propulsion system for the space shuttles.

Seal Beach-based Rockwell was the primary contractor on the four shuttles that are now in use. There are no plans to build additional shuttles.

Lockheed's design of what is generically called a "single-stage-to-orbit vehicle" was detailed recently at a meeting of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association in Colorado.

Shaped like an oblong, or stretched-out triangle, the self-contained vehicle would be launched from a vertical pad and would land in a horizontal position like any other aircraft.

Officials at Lockheed, which is based in Calabasas, said the "aeroballistic rocket" design would have much lower payload costs than current manned or unmanned space vehicles, and its turnaround time for launches could be as short as seven days. Right now, it generally takes several weeks, or even months, to prepare a space shuttle for launch.

The United States government, through NASA or the military, has not yet put out a request for proposals for a new single-stage orbiter but Lockheed officials said winning a contract to build the vehicle could result in $5 billion in new business to develop and assemble just one of the space ships.

According to Lockheed officials, a request for proposals for a new orbiter could be released by the U.S. Air Force as soon as this fall. The Air Force has requested $54 million from Congress to fund preliminary studies of a new orbiter.

So far, at least one other aerospace company has designed a new generation of orbiter. St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas Corp. has designed a space vehicle that it calls DC-X, which is ahead of the Lockheed design in that a model of the spacecraft has been built and was scheduled to undergo its first flight test last week.

Other aerospace companies have also designed a new orbiter, according to industry sources. A spokesman for Maryland-based Martin Marietta Corp. said the company had designed such a vehicle in the 1980s.

James Ragsdale, a spokesman for Lockheed's Advanced Development Co., or Skunk Works, said engineers at the Palmdale- and Burbank-based division began working on the concept of a new reusable space vehicle last year. He said he did not know how much money Lockheed has spent on the project.

"From our point of view, this vehicle will have two advantages: the low payload cost and the low time between launches," Ragsdale said.

He said the Lockheed spacecraft would be capable of putting a 40,000-pound payload into orbit for about $500 a pound.

Currently, it costs about $5,000 a pound to put a vehicle into orbit from either the shuttle or an unmanned vehicle like a Titan rocket.

In addition to space experimentation, a major function of the shuttles is to launch into orbit other commercial or government-sponsored vehicles.

The other advantage of the Lockheed vehicle over current space vehicles is the low turnaround time, Ragsdale said. Because the Lockheed space vehicle and its propulsion system are contained in one reusable unit, the time between launches could be as short as a week, said Ragsdale.

The shuttles take weeks to prepare for launch and one of the reasons for that is expendable booster engines have to be attached to the shuttle.

In the aeroballistic rocket design, the engines are built right into the body of the spacecraft, much like the engines are built into the body of the bat-shaped B-2 stealth bomber. The B-2 is built by Century City-based Northrop Corp.

The engines for the Lockheed spacecraft were designed by engineers at Rocketdyne in the 1960s, said Ragsdale.

Lockheed officials said each flight of the spacecraft would cost at least $300,000, and each vehicle would have a lifespan of about 20 years with an average of 30 launches a year. The spacecraft could be used for both manned and unmanned flights.

Researchers at Lockheed's Skunk Works facility, which for years was based in Burbank but is now in the process of moving to Palmdale, have been responsible for the design of many new aircraft concepts. Among the aircraft to come out of the Skunk Works are the SR-71 Blackbird and U-2 spy plane, as well as the F-117 stealth fighter.

Lockheed currently has a contract with NASA to do both pre- and post-flight maintenance work on the shuttle. However, in the past Lockheed has not been involved with any major manned space projects.