Blackstar?

OM wrote:



Ejecting some sort of cold gas sheath to protect the belly from reentry
heating?



...Or some sort of EM plasma generators designed to create a
protective, cooling plasma barrier between the hull and the
superheated variety? Like using a sunspot to keep something "cool" as
it skims over the surface of the Sun?



Well, there is that electrostatic bulk cooling like is supposed to be
used on the B-2's exhausts.

Pat