`X-33 space plane`

Physical sample shown to illustrate the $12,000/lb fabrication cost in aerospace.

Different industries value materials differently. Over the life of a vehicle, a pound saved in the automotive business is worth two dollars; in the commercial airplane business, two hundred dollars; in the aerospace industry, twenty thousand dollars. [Tom shows a piece of the X-33 space plane liquid hydrogen tank.] This is part of the shell — it's one of my prized possessions. This is part of the X-33 space plane liquid hydrogen tank, cost twelve thousand dollars a pound to fabricate, nice and light.

The X-33 spaceplane was supposed to replace the space shuttle. They designed it for a 2.0. It was a 1.3 billion dollar program. The vessels that held the liquid hydrogen were about the size of a house — I have a piece of the composite material — very lightweight, size of a house, the basic structure weighed about 12,000 pounds. Very few houses are that lightweight, but this had to go in space. They had some problems with bonding of the carbon fiber and the Nomex honeycomb with the adhesive. They didn't want to cancel the program — it was a rush program in the early 90s to demonstrate rapid prototyping. So they just recalculated their safety factor and found out a 5 percent safety factor's good enough.