X-33 PROGRAM JUMPS HURDLE; FUEL TANK FLAW POSED TECHNICAL PROBLEM.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

A top NASA official says the X-33 program has overcome a problem manufacturing a fuel tank and is moving forward at a steady pace.

Fixing two flawed panels in a liquid hydrogen tank - caused by interruptions in a curing cycle because of manufacturing hardware problems - added about $5 million to the program and pushed the unmanned rocket plane's first flight from late this year to mid-2000.

In the meantime, a second hydrogen tank is en route to Marshall Space Flight Test Center in Alabama for testing, said Gary Payton, NASA's associate administrator for aeronautics and space transportation.

``That's the real proof in the pudding. Will those tanks hold liquid hydrogen?'' Payton said. ``Ever since we started X-33 in the summer of 1996 I've known that's the first real crucial test.''

After the practice fuel loadings, the tanks will be shipped to Palmdale to be installed in the X-33, which is being assembled by Lockheed-Martin's ``Skunk Works'' at U.S. Air Force Plant 42. The X-33 should be completed in January, Payton said.

While X-33 rolls along, a second, smaller space plane called the X-34 is caught in a tug-of-war between the New Mexico and California congressional delegations.

The winged rocket program was originally scheduled to begin flight tests at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. The Air Force - fearing conflicts with its operations, notably F-117 stealth fighter flights - told NASA to relocate the program to Edwards Air Force Base.

New Mexico's five-member congressional delegation is protesting the move. At the same time, U.S. Rep. Howard ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, is trying to rally the California delegation to support bringing the craft to Edwards.

``We're caught between delegations,'' said Mike Mann, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the office of aerospace technology.

In the meantime, NASA and its X-34 contractor, rocket maker Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia, are examining what must be done to shift the program to Edwards.

Both the X-33 and X-34 are intended to test technologies for future spaceships.

The X-33 will test technologies for a Lockheed Martin spaceship called VentureStar. Its goal is to reduce the cost of getting a payload into space from $10,000 a pound to less than $1,000 a pound.

The X-34 is to test composite airframe structures, composite reusable propellant tanks, thermal protection systems and low-cost electronic systems.

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PHOTO (Color in AV Edition only) The X-33 is slated for testing in the middle of next year.