the Flight Test Engineer was future NASA astronaut Michael E. Fossum. Rob Meyerson, who later went on to become President of Blue Origin, was an early member of the team. The X-38 design used a wingless lifting body concept originally developed by the U.S. Air Force in the mid-1960s during the X-24 program. R. Dale Reed worked for NASA from 1955-2000 and is considered the Father of the Lifting Body Programs. He met with Muratore (1992-93) and shared his design of the X-24A that he used to present the concept of the X-38 to NASA (Wingless Flight, Chapter 9, pages 186-88). The X-38 program used uncrewed mockups to test the CRV design. Flight models were indicated with the letter V for "Vehicle" followed by a number. X-38 V-131 X-38 V-132 X-38 V-131-R, which was the V-131 prototype reworked with a modified shell X-38 V-201, which was an orbital prototype to be launched by the Space Shuttle X-38 V-121, V-133 and V-301 were also foreseen, but were never built. The X-38 V-131 and V-132 shared the aerodynamic shape of the X-24A. This shape had to be enlarged for the Crew Return Vehicle needs (crew of seven astronauts) and redesigned, especially in the rear part, which became thicker. The X-38 V-131-R was designed at 80 percent of the size of a CRV [, , ], and featured the final redesigned shape (Two later versions, V-133 and V-201, were planned at 100 percent of the CRV size). The 80% scale versions were flown at 15,000 to 24,000 pound weight. The X-38 V-201 orbital prototype was 90 percent complete, but never flown. In drop tests the V-131, V-132 and V-131-R were dropped by a B-52 from altitudes of up to 45,000 ft (13,700 m), gliding at near transonic speeds before deploying a drogue parachute to slow them to . The later prototypes had their descent continue under a parafoil wing, the largest ever made. Flight control was mostly autonomous, backed up by a ground-based pilot. Design The X-38 was intended to be semi-permanently docked to the ISS. If the crew became sick or injured during the course of their mission, they would enter the rescue vehicle through a hatched docking mechanism. With execution of a short procedure, the crew return vehicles would automatically fly the crew members safely to Earth. Once undocked, the vehicle would be deorbited using a deorbital propulsion system (DPS). The