Blackstar (spaceplane)

Blackstar is the reported codename of a secret United States orbital spaceplane system. The possible existence of the Blackstar program was reported in March 2006 by Aviation Week & Space Technology (Aviation Week, AWST) magazine; the magazine reported that the program had been underway since at least the early 1990s, and that the impetus for Blackstar was to allow the United States Government to retain orbital reconnaissance capabilities jeopardised following the 1986 Challenger disaster. The article also said that the United States Air Force's Space Command were unaware of Blackstar, suggesting it was operated by an intelligence agency such as the National Reconnaissance Office."Two-Stage-to-Orbit 'Blackstar' System Shelved at Groom Lake?." Scott, W., Aviation Week & Space Technology. March 5, 2006."Did Pentagon create orbital space plane?." Oberg, J., MSNBC. March 6, 2006.

Aviation Week speculated that such a spacecraft could also have offensive military capabilities (a concept colloquially known as "The Space Bomber" "Bush plans 'space bomber'." Vulliamy, E., The Observer. July 29, 2001."Pentagon planning for space bomber." Windrem, R., MSNBC. August 14, 2001.). The magazine also stated that it was likely that Blackstar would be mothballed, although it is unclear whether this is due to cost or failure of the program.

The Aviation Week report was a few days later dismissed as "almost certainly bogus" and the project termed a "technical absurdity" by Jeffrey F. Bell in an article in Spacedaily, which is thorough but misinterprets some points (including discussing a laser for adaptive optics as if it was a weapon and dismissing the launch system as impossible despite the success of the similar Tier One)."Six blind men in a zoo: Aviation Week’s mythical Blackstar." Day, D. A., The Space Review. March 13, 2006."Blackstar A False Messiah From Groom Lake Bell, J. F., Spacedaily. March 10, 2006. Mr Day refers to other questionable stories by the Aviation Week author in his article.

The Blackstar system

Aviation Week describes Blackstar as a two stage to orbit system, comprising a high-speed jet "mothership" aircraft (which Aviation Week referred to as the SR-3). Its description of SR-3 is similar to the North American B-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 strategic bomber, and to patents filed in the 1980s by Boeing. The SR-3 would carry a second, smaller airframe, codenamed the XOV (eXperimental Orbital Vehicle). This rocket-powered spaceplane, with similarities to the X-20 Dyna-Soar project, would be released by its mothership at an altitude of around 100,000 feet. The XOV would then light its rocket motor and could achieve both suborbital and orbital flight; one source quoted by Aviation Week estimates the XOV could reach an orbit of 300 miles above the Earth, depending on payload and mission profile. The XOV would then reenter the atmosphere, fly like a normal aircraft (possibly using aerospike engines, similar to those used by the Lockheed Martin X-33), and would land horizontally on a conventional runway. This combination of jet-powered mothership and a smaller rocket-powered spaceplane resembles the civilian Tier One spaceplane system, but capable of much higher velocities and of thus attaining orbit. Readers are cautioned to examine the challenges involved in supersonic separation of vehicles as opposed to the more common subsonic separation of ordinance from aircraft. The Lockheed SR-71 has severe challenges and losses involved in D-21 separation incidents.

The program

The primary use of a military spaceplane such as Blackstar would be to conduct high-altitude or orbital reconnaissance, allowing surprise overflights of foreign locations with very low risk of the spyplane being successfully engaged by existing air-defense systems. This is similar to the goals of the earlier U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft; in some circumstances such an overflight yields more information than a pass by a reconnaissance satellite, as the satellite's path is predictable, allowing sensitive material to be hidden.

Military analysts have suggested that a military spaceplane could also be used to place small satellites in orbit, to retrieve them, to provide a means of launching nuclear weapons from orbit, or to serve as a platform for exotic orbit-to-ground hypervelocity weapons. The small spaceplane described by Aviation Week appears to have only a very modest cargo capacity, limiting its use in such missions.

Aviation Week suggests that the huge costs of the Blackstar program were borne both by the Department of Defense's own black budget and by hiding the costs of Blackstar inside the procurement costs attached to acknowledged military purchases. To assist in this, and to allow politicians to deny the USAF operates such a vehicle, the Blackstar assets may nominally be owned and operated by the civilian defense contractors who built it. The magazine suggests that a consortium of Boeing and Lockheed are responsible for Blackstar.

It is unclear if the Blackstar program became fully operational, although it may have been so since the mid 1990s. Aviation Week's article speculated that the success of Blackstar explains the Government's willingness to cancel the SR-71 Blackbird and Air Force satellite-launch programs.

Discussions of similar aircraft

During the 1970s, when studies were underway which led to the specification of the Space Shuttle, most leading US aerospace contractors explored orbital spaceplane designs, some based on a two-stage design. The most serious of these was the Lockheed HGV under the X-24C program, which was a manned hypersonic vehicle dropped from underwing a B-52, even to the point of rumors that it had actually been flight tested, according to Astronautix.com. With the adoption of the Space Shuttle design, these avenues appear to have been abandoned. The use of a spaceplane as part of the launching system to replace the Space Shuttle has been suggested, in programs such as VentureStar.

Some of the details of the SR-3 mothership resemble the rumored Aurora aircraft (a high-speed, high-altitude delta-winged aircraft) and the lengthening of runways at facilities such as Area 51 (taken by some as evidence of Aurora) could instead be necessary either to support SR-3's takeoff or XOV's landing. Most descriptions of Aurora, however, describe it as a hypersonic plane with the exotic engine technology; the SR-3 described by Aviation Magazine is similar to existing conventional aircraft.

A similar military space shuttle is discussed in the last two seasons of the fictional TV show The West Wing. The show explores the political ramifications that a secret "space bomber" could have with regard to the militarization of space.

In the romance film "Notting Hill," an actress is seen reading a script from a nonexistent action movie, in which Black Star is mentioned as a tool that will have to be used to get information on an emerging nuclear crisis.

In the late 1960's the North American Aircraft Corporation studied conceptual designs using the B-70 bomber for small space launch. These were abandoned as unpromising.

May 2006 UK Defence report on "Black" aircraft sightings

In May 2006, the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) released an extensive report on Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) in the U.K. air defence area ^*. It was written by the Defence Intelligence Staff in 2000 and was originally classified "SECRET UK eyes only". One of the Working Papers is entitled ""BLACK" AND OTHER AIRCRAFT AS UAP EVENTS". It says "it is acknowledged that some UAP sightings can be attributed to covert aircraft programmes". The report lists three "Western" programmes which might result in this — all of which appear to be American. The first - not surprisingly - is the SR-71. Programme 2 and Programme 3 are redacted from the report — even their names are withheld. Two photos are also redacted. This was reported on June 14 2006 by BBC Newsnight.

References

External links

BBC Newsnight 14 June 2006 Links to UK MoD "Black" aircraft working paper