Manufacturing and NDE of Large Composite Structures for Space Transportation at MSFC
This paper presents the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) vision to manufacture, increase safety and reduce the cost of launch vehicles. Nondestructive evaluations of large composite structures are tested for space transportation at MSFC. The topics include: 1) 6 1/2 Genera
Selection note: Curated because this 2000 preprint (draft being sent to journal) from Marshall Space Flight Center specifically covers “Manufacturing and NDE of Large Composite Structures for Space Transportation at MSFC”; its abstract describes This paper presents the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) vision to manufacture, increase safety and reduce the cost of launch vehicles. Nondestructive evaluations of… This materially informs GShips ethics and alternatives.
Evidence boundary: NTRS lists open full text, but this pass assessed catalog metadata and abstract rather than independently validating the document. Inclusion is contextual discovery support, not automatic evidence for a GShips claim.
Stable record
ntrs-20000067685
Topic
ethics-alternatives
Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Publisher
Marshall Space Flight Center
Authors
McGill, Preston; Russell, Sam
Year
2000
Editorial state
metadata curated editorial draft
Reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Official link checked
2026-07-25
Source-supplied abstract
This paper presents the Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC's) vision to manufacture, increase safety and reduce the cost of launch vehicles. Nondestructive evaluations of large composite structures are tested for space transportation at MSFC. The topics include: 1) 6 1/2 Generations of Airplanes in a Century; 2) Shuttle Safety Upgrades; 3) Generations of Reusable Launch Vehicles; 4) RLV Technology Demonstration Path; 5) Second Generation; 6) Key NASA Requirements; 7) X-33 Elements; 8) Future-X Pathfinder Projects and Experiments; 9) Focus Area Technical Goals; 10) X-34 Expanded View; 11) X-38 Spacecraft with De-Orbit Propulsion Stage (DPS); 12) Deorbit Module (DM) Critical Design Review (CDR) Design; 13) Forward Structural Adapter (FSA) CDR Design; 14) X-38 DPS CDR Design; 15) RLV Focused Propulsion Technologies; and 16) Challenges in Technology. This paper is presented in viewgraph form.
Abstract text has not been adopted as a GShips conclusion.
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NTRS lists open full text, but this pass assessed catalog metadata and abstract rather than independently validating the document. Inclusion is contextual discovery support, not automatic evidence for a GShips claim.
Source-supplied titles, abstracts, authors, and dates may require correction against the canonical full text.
What would change this page?
A newer or corrected version, retraction, verified duplicate, material topic mismatch, changed access state, or claim-level assessment would change this record.
People, review, and conflicts
Prepared by
GShips Project
Editorial status
metadata-curated-editorial-draft
Editorial reviewer
GShips Project editorial synthesis
Last editorial review
No editorial-review date recorded
Independent review
pending
Independent reviewer
No independent reviewer assigned
Last independent review
No independent-review date exists
Last content edit
Not recorded separately
Official source or link verified
2026-07-25
Declared conflicts
The maintainer intends to explore a commercial venture based on some GShips work. No entity, outside funding, customer, sponsor, or indexed-organization relationship currently exists.