AWST: Two-Stage-to-Orbit Manned 'Blackstar' System

AWST: Two-Stage-to-Orbit Manned 'Blackstar' System

Aviation Week & Space Technology

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Two-Stage-to-Orbit 'Blackstar' System Shelved at Groom Lake?

By William B. Scott

03/05/2006 04:07:33 PM



SPACEPLANE SHELVED?

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. U.S. intelligence agencies may have quietly mothballed a
highly classified two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system designed in the 1980s
for reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery. It
could be a victim of shrinking federal budgets strained by war costs, or it
may not have met performance or operational goals.

This two-vehicle "Blackstar" carrier/orbiter system may have
been declared operational during the 1990s.