The Dyna-Soar, designed to be a 35.5-foot piloted reusable space vehicle, had a sharply swept delta 20.4-foot-span wing and a graphite and zirconia composite nose cap and used three retractable struts for landing. Eleven manned flights were to be launched from Cape Canaveral Fla., starting in November 1964. However, the U.S. government canceled the program on Dec. 10, 1963, because Dyna-Soar had no viable military mission and was too expensive for a research vehicle.