Message posted by gary on September 22, 2002 at 19:25:44 PST:

That article is more like a collection of science rather than a description of a future vehicle. Some of the technology is already here, such as MEMs and sensors to indicate failure is about to happen.

The X33 was cancelled for a combination of technical and political reasons. You can gleam the political reasons based on the dates in this NASA statement:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-031.txt
The technical failure had to do with the composite tanks which never really worked. A quick google search turned up this old report:
http://www.aerotechnews.com/starc/2000/081800/X33_report.html

In Reply to: h'mm new TAV or new and improved X-33 ? posted by aaron johnson on September 22, 2002 at 15:56:54 PST:

Replies: