X-33/VentureStar - What really happened

[Spiceman]

Also the Moorman study that was the start of the EELVs: same year 1994.

[LittleBird]

Also the Moorman study that was the start of the EELVs: same year 1994.

Thanks-that’s another one i hadn’t seen https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA332884.pdf

[leovinus]

Thanks for the good old website, it's a treasure trove !

Isn't it. I still wonder if the paper Cooper mentioned is subsumed into Butrica's book or now lost.

Try at NARA catalog.archives.gov Per Butrica's book, page 258, we know NARA has the X-33 archives as 255-01-0645 where RG-255 is roughly "all NASA stuff". At page 247, there is a reference 41 to a memorandum by Henry F. Cooper to Rep. Murtha, File #291. Therefore, it is likely there are more memos by Cooper at NARA.

Not much progress but interesting for the history buffs anyway. As I was going over the "old" websites such as

The X-33 on the Internet
https://web.archive.org/web/19980216082641/http://vab02.larc.nasa.gov/Activities/X-33.html
and
https://web.archive.org/web/19991103230706/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/x-33/ssto-rlv.htm

I noticed there was supposed to be a list of relevant reports which also disappeared. A bit more analysis revealed that the list was at
https://web.archive.org/web/19980216082017/http://vab02.larc.nasa.gov/sstolist.html
and attached for reference. HL-20 list as bonus.

EDIT: there is one thing that might make such a search easier. On page 258, Butrica says

The reader thus will find throughout this work’s endnotes numerous references to records in the X-33 Archive. The archive includes an electronic guide to the files and their contents on CD.

In other words, there is a CD with a reasonable index of the X-33 material seen by Butrica. If someone has a copy then that might quickly answer your question above about Cooper's memo. Alternatively, maybe drop NARA a note and ask them for a copy of CD.

Still no trace of the CD-ROM though Butrica mentions the progress at NTRS 19980010422
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search?fundingNumber=NASw-97005&page=%7B%22from%22:0,%22size%22:25%7D