DC-X Delta Clipper: vertical takeoff and landing rocket
DC-X Delta Clipper: despegue y aterrizaje vertical de un cohete
- Date
- 18 de agosto de 1993 · confidence high
- Place
- White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, United States
- Credited to
- McDonnell Douglas and the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A suborbital prototype of a reusable rocket that took off, flew and landed vertically on its own engines. Between 1993 and 1996, counting its DC-XA version, it made twelve flights and demonstrated the flip-and-descend manoeuvre on which today's launchers rely.
NASA inherited the project as DC-XA, which was lost in an accident in 1996. Several of its engineers later joined Blue Origin and SpaceX.
What it led to
- the concept of a fully reusable single-stage rocket
- a source of ideas for the later Blue Origin and SpaceX tests
- quick-turnaround tests: reflying in 26 hours