X-33 BUFFER BILL READY FOR WILSON'S SIGNATURE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

Legislation designed to protect the X-33 spacecraft program by limiting residential development south of Edwards Air Force Base has sailed through the state Legislature.

Now awaiting the governor's signature, Assembly Bill 296 would put approximately 30 square miles into Lancaster's ``sphere of influence,'' a designation for land that falls outside the city's direct jurisdiction but over which it would have influence in development decisions made by Los Angeles County.

``We will have a direct seat at the table with the county on those permit issues,'' City Manager Jim Gilley said Wednesday.

The proposed addition to the city's sphere of influence covers largely vacant desert with a few scattered homes and ranches, extending from 120th Street East to the San Bernardino County line and from Avenue J to Avenue A.

The idea is to prevent complaints about noise that could endanger the X-33 program by restricting residential development in the area.

The legislation was spurred by findings from Lancaster's aerospace consultants that the noise from an X-33 takeoff could carry for five to seven miles. X-33 program officials are planning to build a simple launch pad for the project on Edwards.

The consultants first raised the noise issue with city officials Aug. 28, and the provisions for the sphere of influence sped through the Legislature - going from first committee hearings to final passage in less than two days.

It passed with floor votes of 30-1 in the Senate and 54-6 in the Assembly.

Its ease of passage is an indication of how important the X-33 project is, said Councilman Jim Jeffra. The project is expected to generate as many as 2,000 jobs.

``It's a futuristic project. It isn't something that's going to go away in two or three years. This is long term,'' Jeffra said. ``The X-33 is something important to the valley and to the state of California.''

The X-33 is a prototype intended to lead to the development of a reusable spacecraft to replace the space shuttle, which first flew into space 15 years ago.

The idea is to reduce the cost of putting satellites and other payloads into space from $10,000 a pound to under $1,000 a pound.

Under a $1 billion contract, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale is developing the X-33, which would fly as high as 160,000 feet and as fast as 15 times the speed of sound - but would not go into orbit - to prove that the concept would work for a full-scale spacecraft.

Both the X-33 prototype and the spacecraft would take off like a rocket and land like an airplane, but without disposable rocket boosters the space shuttles need.

Flight tests will be conducted at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. The first flight is to be conducted by March 1999 and the contract calls for 15 suborbital flights to be conducted by December 1999.