Are politicians averse to leaving LEO?

On 22 Jan, 16:22, "Jeff Findley" wrote:
"Ian Parker" wrote in message

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On 21 Jan, 16:48, "Jeff Findley" wrote:
"Ian Parker" wrote in message

....

A reusable vechle has been proped masny times. The point is there have
been classified programs like Blackstar and Aurora. The question for
me is why has the military abandoned them?

Reusables only make sense at high flight rates. There is no viable
military
mission which would require such a flight rate. That's one reason why
X-20
was canned, no credible mission that couldn't be done by unmanned
satellites.

In fact for really low cost there are quite a few missions. Figure
this OBL knows when the satellite is coming over and acts accordingle.
If a satellite could be popped up quickly he would not then know.

Good luck with that.

Something complete different. The Chinese have deployed an ASAT
weapon. One answer is to step up the launch rate.

The satellites themselves cost more than the ASAT. *You'd never win that
battle.

The military also want to vary thier orbits. It would be useful to
rendez vous with a spy satellite and load in more fuel. There are a
whole host of misions for the X-20 - it it works.

Progress does this in a completely unmanned fashion.

Of course it does Would the X-22 do it cheaper? The X-22 would be
capable of unmanned flights as well.

It could well be that such things as the Predator have reduced the
need for space. However there are no Predator flights over N Korea.
There is diplomatic pressure too from Pakistan. You can fly in space
without diplomatic consequences which you can't do with Predators.

Not with a manned vehicle. *Manned vehicles and things like high powered
optics don't play well together. *Again, there simply weren't valid, cost
effective, missions for a manned USAF vehicle when unmanned satellites were
starting to do so well.

True you want an unmanned X-20. I am not sure about satellite
costings. A lot of the cost is DEVELOPMENT cost. The cost per item is
a llot lower.

BTW - If you can't ever catch up should the US be so dependent on
space. Would it be better for example to base navigation on mobile
phone masts? This is quite a point to consider.


- Ian Parker