X-33 space plane liquid hydrogen tank

Physical sample held up. Carbon-carbon composite with Nomex honeycomb at $12,000/lb.

[Tom holds up a composite sample.] This is a piece of the X-33 space plane liquid hydrogen tank. Carbon-carbon composite, Nomex honeycomb. That material cost twelve thousand dollars a pound. It's light, but at twelve thousand dollars a pound — as fabricated, a titanium submarine is only about a hundred times the cost of an HY-100 submarine. What are you paying for the hull of an HY-100 submarine right now? Probably twenty-five or thirty dollars a pound. So do you want to start paying three thousand bucks a pound to protect our subs? You can do it.