Aviation Week describes Blackstar - a secret 2 stage to orbit spaceplane

[LastDemocratInSC]

From the article:

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"For 16 years, Aviation Week & Space Technology has investigated myriad sightings of a two-stage-to-orbit system that could place a small military spaceplane in orbit. Considerable evidence supports the existence of such a highly classified system, and top Pentagon officials have hinted that it's "out there," but iron-clad confirmation that meets AW&ST standards has remained elusive. Now facing the possibility that this innovative "Blackstar" system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we've learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into "black world" history, known to only a few insiders."

"A large "mothership," closely resembling the U.S. Air Force's historic XB-70 supersonic bomber, carries the orbital component conformally under its fuselage, accelerating to supersonic speeds at high altitude before dropping the spaceplane. The orbiter's engines fire and boost the vehicle into space. If mission requirements dictate, the spaceplane can either reach low Earth orbit or remain suborbital."

"Once a Blackstar orbiter reenters the atmosphere, it can land horizontally at almost any location having a sufficiently long runway. So far, observed spaceplane landings have been reported at Hurlburt AFB, Fla.; Kadena AB, Okinawa; and Holloman AFB, N.M."

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This is a fascinating article. There are many interesting items in the article that I could mention here but I'll leave them as gems for each reader to find.

One thing I wonder about is whether this revelation might explain the periodic loud booms heard along the South East coast coming in from the Atlantic ocean over the last 15 years or so. The Aurora project was often cited as a source of the booms but perhaps Blackstar is a more likely candidate?

Here's the link:

http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/030606p1.xml

[soothsayer]

1. Cool! I thought Aurora was over CA (with those cool v-shaped

seismic readings when it passed by). I guess at its speed, it could hit both coasts in short order, tho, lol.

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. One thing Aviation Leak doesn't say much about

why the spaceplane (if it existed) was shelved. My speculation:

1. High operational costs
2. Technical failures
3. Other systems were doing the job as well with greater reliability, less risk and cost
or
4. The whole thing was phony mis-information

[sam sarrha]

3. they just built a better more expensive one..is why

[General Paranoia]

4. And now a different view...

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Blackstar_A_False_Messiah_From_Groom_Lake.html :wtf:

[LastDemocratInSC]

5. Thanks for the different view

Thanks for the interesting article.

I wonder if Aviation Week is going to take a hit on this? The journal has been an authoritative source for decades. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.