Delta Clipper, a VTOL Rocket Before SpaceX

shorts# See Full Video at The DC-X, or Delta Clipper Experimental, was a revolutionary uncrewed prototype of a reusable single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) launch vehicle conjointly designed and built by McDonnell Douglas and the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization of the United States Department of Defense from 1991 to 1993. With funding from NASA from 1994 to 1995, testing of the prototype continued. Despite its one-third-scale size, the DC-X was not engineered to reach orbital altitudes or speeds, but rather to showcase the concept of vertical takeoff and landing.