Blackstar is the name of a possible orbital spaceplane that the US government has been developing at Area 51. It's a 2 stage to orbit system. The OSP is carried into the sky by a "mothership" plane, which releases the orbiter to fly into orbit. It has supposedly been in development since the early 90s, but no one really heard anything about it until 2001 when the Pentagon announced a "space bomber" was being planned. They didn't say the project name; only that a spaceplane was being planned.
Here's the wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_%28spaceplane%29
Here's what I think...
:right: I think it's safe to assume that the project really does exist. If not, then why else would the Pentagon ever announce a "space bomber?"
:right: Some people are saying that the project was cancelled due to the project being a failure, but look at SpaceShipOne... it uses the same launch system and works just fine, only it doesn't reach full orbit. Who is to say that the government hasn't been developing a plane to go to full orbit?
:right: If the government wasn't developing a secret project, then why were the SR-71 Blackbird planes retired? And why were Air Force sattelite-launch programs cancelled?
:right: Why cancel the project now? So much money has probably been put into it already. The SpaceShipOne basically proves that it can work. If they cancelled Blackstar, it would be a huge waste.
:right: From a technological standpoint, isn't it time that we've developed an orbital spaceplane? It seems like the next step in aviation & spaceflight to me.
What does everyone else think?
(if you need to know what something means, ask me and I'll add a wikipedia article, or you can look it up yourself to find out faster.)
Here's the wikipedia article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_%28spaceplane%29
Here's what I think...
:right: I think it's safe to assume that the project really does exist. If not, then why else would the Pentagon ever announce a "space bomber?"
:right: Some people are saying that the project was cancelled due to the project being a failure, but look at SpaceShipOne... it uses the same launch system and works just fine, only it doesn't reach full orbit. Who is to say that the government hasn't been developing a plane to go to full orbit?
:right: If the government wasn't developing a secret project, then why were the SR-71 Blackbird planes retired? And why were Air Force sattelite-launch programs cancelled?
:right: Why cancel the project now? So much money has probably been put into it already. The SpaceShipOne basically proves that it can work. If they cancelled Blackstar, it would be a huge waste.
:right: From a technological standpoint, isn't it time that we've developed an orbital spaceplane? It seems like the next step in aviation & spaceflight to me.
What does everyone else think?
(if you need to know what something means, ask me and I'll add a wikipedia article, or you can look it up yourself to find out faster.)