The March 6, 2006 issue of the magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology reported the likely hood of the existence of a two-stage-to-orbit system, Blackstar, that could place a small military manned space plane into orbit. The small delta shaped craft, was carried to high altitude and speed by a mother ship looking similar to a XB-70 supersonic bomber of 1960’s. The program may not be active at this time.
See the following link to the main article:
http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/c ... 0606p1.xml
If the link does not work search on "blackstar" and "aviation".
The other two articles in the magazine detailed observations at close range of the space plane on the ground and the details of the mother ship and how it resembled the XB-70 Valkyrie. I did see the one remaining XB-70 at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. There seems to be 15 General Electric YJ-93-3 engines that are missing that were built for the XB-70 program.
An amazing story.
Mark
US Manned Air Launched Orbital Spaceplane
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Yes, a fascinating article, but also see the report by Jeffrey Bell at http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Black ... _Lake.html which more or less debunks the whole thing.
I don't think an air-launched space plane is a very practical method of launching satellites. Too much infrastructure for too little cargo. On the other hand, the Air Force is still pursuing a hypersonic plane that would launch a small rocket with a small reconnaissance satellite attached. This would give the element of surprise during a crisis, so the enemy couldn't play hide-and-seek like they do with our regular spy satellites which orbit like clockwork.
I don't think an air-launched space plane is a very practical method of launching satellites. Too much infrastructure for too little cargo. On the other hand, the Air Force is still pursuing a hypersonic plane that would launch a small rocket with a small reconnaissance satellite attached. This would give the element of surprise during a crisis, so the enemy couldn't play hide-and-seek like they do with our regular spy satellites which orbit like clockwork.