It discouraged further production of most expendable rockets, forcing everyone to put all his space eggs in the shuttle basket.

She said it currently had no customers, and the agency was exploring whether it could be adapted to expendable rockets.

The Buran program matched an expendable rocket to a reusable spaceplane.

American experts say the Soviet Union has an adequate ability to launch reconnaissance satellites using expendable rockets.

It said the agency should make every effort to shift cargoes to expendable rockets, "even in cases where modification of the payload is required."

And since the Challenger explosion in January 1986, the military has embarked on a $11.7 billion program to buy expendable rockets.

It returned to building expendable rockets to provide alternative access to space.

The space plane, launched by a conventional expendable rocket, would supplement the shuttle but not replace it.

As a launch vehicle it has formed the basis of the most successful and reliable expendable rockets in service.

Tentative plans call for launching a 20,000-pound, two-piece robot craft on an expendable rocket.