90s SSTO: DC-X and VentureStar

[Nighthawk117]

Here's what the final three X-33 entrants looked like.

[Ithirahad]

Here's what the final three X-33 entrants looked like.

Two reusable rocket concepts, and one reusable flying cheese wedge from hell. And guess which one got chosen...

[Reynold]

Here's what the final three X-33 entrants looked like.

Two reusable rocket concepts, and one reusable flying cheese wedge from hell. And guess which one got chosen...

My recollection of NASA's rationale when they made their choice was that the wedge (i.e. lifting body) had the most technology development needed to make it work out of the three options.  Yes, that was considered a feature, not a bug, shocking that it went way over budget and was eventually canceled when they couldn't make the composite fuel tank work. . .

[Vahe231991]

How did the thrust-to-weight ratio and specific impulse of the DC-X and Rockwell International proposals compare with that of the VentureStar?

[WIgorN]

How did the thrust-to-weight ratio and specific impulse of the DC-X and Rockwell International proposals compare with that of the VentureStar?

What is the point of such a comparison?
VTVL concept demonstrator and full SSTO VTHL?
They have a common hidrolox fuel and vertical launch - all.
Optimum vertical LV submitter with Liquid Rocket Engine TWR ~ 1.5.
Then in SRM with TWR not modest.

[catdlr]

Was the LM X-33 entrant a version of the 1960 LS-200 Clipper?

[Asteroza]

Was the LM X-33 entrant a version of the 1960 LS-200 Clipper?

Depends on whether you call deleting the drop tanks a variant or not...

[Comga]

Here's what the final three X-33 entrants looked like.

Two reusable rocket concepts, and one reusable flying cheese wedge from hell. And guess which one got chosen...

My recollection of NASA's rationale when they made their choice was that the wedge (i.e. lifting body) had the most technology development needed to make it work out of the three options.  Yes, that was considered a feature, not a bug, shocking that it went way over budget and was eventually canceled when they couldn't make the composite fuel tank work. . .

I can remember clearly Dan Goldin, with a smiling Al Gore behind him, making that insipid statement. Doom was written all over it.

It might have been a few years later that NASA did a study to determine the best propellant combination for a rocket’s first stage. The result wa RP-1 and LOX IIRC.
LH2/LOX is great for very high energy missions, but looses its advantage for stages where the mass fraction is less important and when extra hardware, like recovery and/or landing gear, is added.