X-33 VentureStar construction

Assembled by Lockheed Martin, the X-33 was intended to be a 1/3 scale prototype of a fully-operational RLV (Reusable Launch Vehicle) called the VentureStar, designed to dramatically lower the costs of launching payloads in space. The VentureStar may now be nothing more than a memory, but it nearly became part of NASA, the commercial fleet and indeed even the US Air Force, had it of not been for some controversial key decisions during the construction of the technology demonstrator, the X-33. When cancelled, 40 percent of the X-33 construction was already done. Because of bad decisions, the X-33, instead of becoming a potential leap in space vehicle technology, turned out to became a $1.5 billion waste to the US tax payer.