Executive Summary

      Although the Space Shuttle has well served its purpose for years, in order to revitalize and advance the American space program, a new space launch vehicle is needed. A prime candidate for the new manned launch vehicle is the DC-X. The DC-X isn’t a state-of-the-art rocket that would require millions of dollars of new development. The DC-X is a space launch vehicle that has already been tested and proven. Very little remains to be done in order to complete the process of establishing the DC-X as an operational vehicle. All that’s left is the building and final testing of a full-size DC-X, followed by manufacture and distribution.

      The Space Shuttle, as well as expendable rockets, is very expensive to build, maintain and launch. Costing approximately half a billion dollars for each flight, NASA can only afford to do a limited number of Space Shuttle missions. Also, the Shuttle is maintenance intensive, requiring hundreds of man-hours of maintenance after each flight. The DC-X, however, is very cheap to build, easy to maintain, and much cheaper to operate. If the DC-X was used as NASA’s vehicle of choice, NASA could afford to put more payloads into orbit, and manned space missions wouldn’t be the relative rarity they are now.

      Since not much remains in order to complete the DC-X, a new private organization dedicated solely to the DC-X would be the ideal choice for the company that would build it. Many of the larger existing companies are plagued by bureaucracy that would only hinder the development of the DC-X. NASA suffers from the same problem, and it also depends on outside support for continued funding. Therefore, a new company, started exclusively for the purpose of building the DC-X, would be the ideal choice.
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