Military Spaceplane

Hi Everyone:

I was wondering if there was any information currently available about
the military's progress in developing a single-stage-to-orbit
spaceplane. I read a great number of articles in years past about the
Air Force's great interest in developing an economical
single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane, in order to ensure space access at
reasonable costs, but the news seems to have petered out of late. I'm
sure the need for space access hasn't gone away, and many of the
programs mentioned seemed quite promising, if expensive, so I was
wondering what the latest news on the field is. Space access seems to
be a hot field these days, so I would hope someone in the Air Force is
working on this.

On 5 Dec 2004 19:15:29 -0800, in a place far, far away,
(Andy Tompkins) made the phosphor on my
monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Hi Everyone:

I was wondering if there was any information currently available about
the military's progress in developing a single-stage-to-orbit
spaceplane. I read a great number of articles in years past about the
Air Force's great interest in developing an economical
single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane, in order to ensure space access at
reasonable costs, but the news seems to have petered out of late. I'm
sure the need for space access hasn't gone away, and many of the
programs mentioned seemed quite promising, if expensive, so I was
wondering what the latest news on the field is. Space access seems to
be a hot field these days, so I would hope someone in the Air Force is
working on this.

They are not, though it's hardly a foregone conclusion that
single-stage-to-orbit is either sufficient or necessary for low-cost
routine access to space.