Far from being ready for space, NASA's billion-dollar space plane, a critical transitional craft in replacing the Space Shuttle, is in deep trouble. The maiden test flights of the X-33 hypersonic plane were scheduled for the middle of this year. But NASA now says the prototype will not fly until at least the end of 2001.

Indeed, if the critics have their way, the X-33 may never leave the ground. At congressional hearings in April, House space subcommittee chairman Dana Rohrabacher criticized NASA's strategy for replacing the Space Shuttle. "By resisting the philosophy of build a little, test a little, NASA had put all of our cheap-access-to-space eggs in one fragile technology basket."