In the late 1980s, the United States launched the $2 billion National Aero-Space Plan (NASP) to develop a passenger spaceliner.
As part of this larger program, the Rockwell X-30 was an advanced technology demonstrator for the single-stage spacecraft.
Unlike a traditional space shuttle with a launch vehicle that detaches from the cabin, the X-30 would be a single, cohesive vehicle...
...and it would have the ability to take off and land on a runway like a plane and could traverse the globe in 4 hours.
Typically, atmospheric friction on a spacecraft generates heat and wastes considerable energy, resulting in a max speed of Mach 8...
...but the X-30 was designed to recover this power by passing hydrogen over the skin and carrying heat into the combustion chamber.
The spacecraft could theoretically reach speeds in excess of Mach 20 (15,345 mph / 24,696 km/h) with its scramjet engine.
Because the DoD insisted that the X-30 have a two-person crew and carry a payload, it was much larger and heavier than planned.
This, along with setbacks in the development of the propulsion technology, ballooned the program cost and led to cancellation in 1993.
A smaller version of the craft, the X-43, was later developed and set a jet aircraft speed record of Mach 9.6 (7,310 mph / 11,850 km/h).
NASA’s Constellation Program (CxP) ran from 2005 to 2009 with a estimated budget of $230 billion and three major goals:
1. Completion of the International Space Station, 2. Return to the Moon no later than 2020, and 3. A crewed flight to Mars.
CxP called for the development of two new rockets, the Ares I for low Earth orbit, and the Ares V for heavy lifting.
The Ares V would have been capable of lifting nearly 200 tons, twice the power of the of the Saturn V that supported the Apollo program.
On top of the rockets would have been the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, with variants developed for all stages of the program...
...including carrying the Altair lunar module that would have taken 4 NASA astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since the 1970s.
More ambitious elements of CxP also included a mission to land on and mine a near-Earth asteroid as a first step in a mission to Mars...
...with the ultimate goal of CxP to establish a habitat in Mars orbit and land a crew for 500 days of exploration on the planet’s surface.
The project was officially cancelled in 2009 due to mounting technical challenges, cost, and the emergence of competitive private ventures.
It is now hoped that SpaceX will be able to accomplish CxP’s end goal even sooner, starting with a cargo mission to Mars in 2022.
X-33 was a request for new unmanned orbital technology for a next generation, commercially operated reusable launch vehicle...
...that would take less time to turn around, fewer people to operate, and cost a fraction of existing shuttle launches.
By achieving orbit in a single stage, the external propulsion and fuel tanks for each launch would no longer be necessary...
...and the X-33 concept that eventually won the $1 billion contract was developed by Lockheed Martin’s top-secret Skunk Works division.
Their version measured 69-ft (20 m) long with a wingspan of 77-ft (23 m) with a weight of more than 285,000 lbs (130,000 kg).
Heat shields, cryogenic fuel tanks to store liquid hydrogen fuel, and a special aero-spike engine were also included in the development.
The completion of the prototype was delayed several times due to technical difficulties with both the specialized composite fuel tanks...
...and tests were complicated by severe instability during drone flights, believed to be caused by the craft’s excessive weight.
After numerous failed tests of the fuel tank design, NASA concluded that the technology was not advanced enough to continue.
Both the X-33 and its successor, the VentureStar, were canceled, although secret tests of the X-33 continued as late as 2009.
In 1983, facing increasing tensions during the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)...
...a proposed missile defense system that would protect the United States from missile attacks and cost tens of billions of dollars.
There were many ideas proposed to use ground based nuclear X-ray lasers, subatomic particle beams, and electromagnetic rail guns...
...with the goal to identify and intercept incoming ballistic missiles, earning the science-fiction-inspired nickname “Star Wars.”
One early idea was for a curtain of nuclear powered X-ray lasers that would deploy via missiles or satellites following an attack...
...but researchers quickly found that the “X-ray laser would be of at best marginal use for missile defense.”
The Homing Overlay Experiment (HOE) was a crucial test of another defense method, using a metal web to collide with incoming missiles.
The project boasted a successful interception of a missile in the fourth flight in 1984, but the test was ridden with scandal.
A NY Times investigation uncovered that “the two missiles had secretly been fitted with radio beacons to guarantee their meeting in space”...
...and it was discovered that SDI leaders, facing pressure to succeed after spending billions, lied to Congress about the test’s success.
This, along with the astronomical price tag and dwindling necessity after the fall of the Soviet Union, led to Star Wars’ cancellation in 1993.
The cost for the seven years of the failed and abandoned Star Wars program ended up totaling an estimated $41 – 50 billion.
In response to the 1983 launch the US’s Star Wars program, a skeptical Soviet Union saw the move as a US attempt to weaponize space...
...and authorized the secret Polyus-Skif project to develop a space weapon that would destroy enemy satellites with a one-megawatt laser.
The project, disguised as an communications satellite program, involved weaponizing what otherwise appeared to be a space station...
...and led to the creation of Polyus, a 180,000 lb (80,000 kg) prototype that was 187-ft (57 m) long and 16-ft (4.9 m) in diameter.
A suspicious Gorbachev, resistant to space militarization, believed his military had an even more ambitious and nefarious plan for Polyus...
...to create “a true Red Death Star – an Orbital Weapons Platform capable of dropping nuclear warheads anywhere on Earth.”
The weapons were never tested, however, as a software glitch caused Polyus to tumble after separating from its booster...
...so that it was facing earth instead of space when its engines fired, hurling it into the South Pacific without reaching orbit.
The failure doomed the project along with its super-heavy lift rocket, Energia, that was capable of carrying 100,000 tons into orbit.
Energia made only one more flight and recent estimates suggest it would cost 1 trillion rubles to develop a rocket of similar power today.