SPACECRAFT SET FOR PALMDALE; BOEING SELECTS AREA PLANT FOR PROGRAM TO CUT LAUNCHING COSTS.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer Boeing's Phantom Works will use its Palmdale plant to assemble the Future-X Pathfinder, an experimental spacecraft that will test technologies aimed at lowering the cost of getting into orbit. Boeing and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), are negotiating a four-year, $150 million agreement leading to the assembly of an unpiloted, computer-controlled test craft capable of traveling up to Mach 25 - about 17,500 mph. The project will begin assembly in 2000. Future-X will not add employees to Boeing's Palmdale work force, but it will keep those already there busy, company officials said. The Phantom Works is building two prototypes for the joint strike fighter program The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) became synonymous with the later F-35 Lightning II, however until 2001 the term was applied to the competition between the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed Martin X-35. , which will hit a peak employment of about 150 people. ``The ramp-up for Future-X at Palmdale is 2000, about the time we are winding down on the joint strike fighter,'' said Phantom Works spokesman Dave Phillips. ``People will transfer from that program to Future-X. The timing is perfect.'' Flight testing is planned for spring 2001 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC), located inside Edwards Air Force Base, is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. On March 26, 1976 it was named in honor of the late Hugh L. at Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. . A space shuttle test flight is planned for early 2002, making the Future-X Pathfinder the first-ever experimental craft to be flown in both orbital and re-entry RE-ENTRY, estates. The resuming or retaking possession of land which the party lately had. 2. Ground rent deeds and leases frequently contain a clause authorizing the landlord to reenter on the non-payment of rent, or the breach of some covenant, when the environments. Twenty-eight-feet long and weighing 6 tons, the craft will be the first in a series of flight demonstrators under the Future-X program. It will be used as a test bed for 29 airframe, propulsion and operation technologies. Planned experiments include a $6.6 million effort led by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the original home of NASA, is a lead center for propulsion, Space Shuttle propulsion, Shuttle external fuel tank, crew training and payloads, International Space Station (ISS) design and construction, for computers, networks, and to use an electrodynamic tether - which would draw energy from the Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field (and the surface magnetic field) is approximately a magnetic dipole, with one pole near the north pole (see Magnetic North Pole) and the other near the geographic south pole (see Magnetic South Pole). - as a thruster for spaceflight. A $4.2 million effort by NASA's Ames Flight Research Center will investigate ultra-high-temperature ceramics for use on hypersonic hy·per·son·ic adj. Of, relating to, or capable of speed equal to or exceeding five times the speed of sound. hy vehicles. ``These advanced technologies will eventually make routine, safe, low-cost access to space possible with high reliability, fast turnaround and minimal operational crews,'' said Rick Stephens, vice president and general manager of Boeing Reusable Space Systems. ``We view this program as a key step toward achieving NASA's goal of $1,000 per pound to orbit.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO (Color--Ran in AV Edition only) The Future-X Pathfinder, an experimental craft that will test technologies geared toward cutting the cost of spaceflight, will be assembled in Palmdale by Boeing's Phantom Works. |
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