GIGANTIC Aviation Week story, Pentagon has been flying 2-stage orbital spaceplane throughout 1990s&# Options

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

It may even have been manned:
http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/chan...ws/030606p1.xml

My God, what a story -- if it's even partially true. And, judging from this article, they are absolutely certain they have proof (along with proof that the thing, although it works, has recently been mothballed as not
cost-effective).

It's important to keep in mind, though, that this thing is NOT a workable prototype of the originally planned 2-stage winged Space Shuttle. The second stage -- the spaceplane that actually achieved orbit -- was relatively small and probably very inefficient as a cargo carrier; its advantage lay in allowing the US to get a military reconaissance (or weapons) satellite into orbit surreptitiously, with no advance warning of the launch going to other countries. Even at that, as I say, AW reports that the thing has been recently canned as not worth its (doubtless huge) black-budget expense.

[dvandorn]

Just a little gedankenexperiment, here -- anyone care to ponder the ramifications, if the NSA had a manned SSTO vehicle, capable of detailed reconaissance from low orbit, operating at the same time that NASA had an injured bird in orbit?

I grant you, NASA failed to realize that their bird was injured... and failed to even request the kind of NSA imaging that Blackstar might have been able to provide. Much less been *aware* that such imaging, or such a potential rescue vehicle, might even be available.

But, if Blackstar *does* exist, *was* able to fly into orbit, and *was* capable of being manned -- that opens up a whole new can of worms when it comes to decisions made affecting Columbia's condition and the perceived lack of options the NASA managers thought they had in the event their bird *was* injured.

-the other Doug

[Bob Shaw]

Just a little gedankenexperiment, here -- anyone care to ponder the ramifications, if the NSA had a manned SSTO vehicle, capable of detailed reconaissance from low orbit, operating at the same time that NASA had an injured bird in orbit?

I grant you, NASA failed to realize that their bird was injured... and failed to even request the kind of NSA imaging that Blackstar might have been able to provide. Much less been *aware* that such imaging, or such a potential rescue vehicle, might even be available.

But, if Blackstar *does* exist, *was* able to fly into orbit, and *was* capable of being manned -- that opens up a whole new can of worms when it comes to decisions made affecting Columbia's condition and the perceived lack of options the NASA managers thought they had in the event their bird *was* injured.

-the other Doug

oDoug:

Congratulations! You've just invented a *new* internet conspiracy theory!

And it's *better* than most of the rest... ...we could maybe get Mel Gibson to play you, after you get madeover as a taxi-driver by some three letter agency or other!

Bob Shaw

[JTN]

Congratulations! You've just invented a *new* internet conspiracy theory!

Not that new, I'm afraid: West Wing spoiler.