In the "public domain"

[cdr6]

I was looking at a nearby post on the DC-X and the thought occured to me about who owns the "rights" to both the DC-X and the X-33.<br /><br />Were they NASA originated or company originated? If they are the former the designs should be available to the public, much the same as the shuttle. <br /><br />If how ever they are proprietary (company classified as it were) they would be unavailable to entranapureal organizations.<br /><br />Most importantly there is a wealth of information already gathered on these machines. <br /><br />So given the termendious advantage these machines possess in research already in the bag, they might be readily made into a decent TSTO system... (The Venturestar would most likely need reengining with some more convential powerplants.)<br /><br />Does anybody know what is exactly the "status" of these two projects? <br /><br />

 

[craig42]

A quick search of the US Patent office reveals this [url=http://patft.uspto.gov/netacg...G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=DC-X&OS=DC-X&RS=DC-X [/url] patent for an X-33 space vecihle owned by Mckinney et al. However I can't find one for the DC-X though there is a single refrence to it within the X-33 patent. I may have missed something if not perhaps there is no patent for DC-X becuase it is in the public domain?