Two-Stage-to-Orbit Spaceplane Program Shelved

MadMorf writes "According to this article in Aviation Week, for nearly twenty years the USAF and "a team of aerospace contractors" has designed, built and tested a two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane, which could be used for "reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery". Now this highly classified project may have been shelved for budgetary reasons."

Comments

I love The Slashdot Headline

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot reports this spaceplane being shelved as a certain fact. Even the article can't report it as certain. It's mostly conjecture and hearsay at this point.

When did slashdot turn into the Weekly World News? First it was political conspiracy theories, not this. It's getting ridiculous.

Re:I love The Slashdot Headline

[LWATCDR]

'When did slashdot turn into the Weekly World News? "
Actually Aviation Week is a very good source. It is often called Aviation Leak by people in the military. Some of this makes a lot of sense. I was reading that Redstone arsenal got rid of some of the last of it's Pentaborane not too long ago and that they had disposed of a large supply of it at Edwards as well.
Pentaborane is some very nasty stuff and the Air Force was supposed to have stopped development of it way back in the 60s.
Lots of people have been reporting an XB-70 like aircraft flying around the south west around Groom Lake. There is also the law suits about toxic chemicals that some black project workers have been exposed to. A borane compound really fits that bill. I would have to give this a probable. It would just be a development of work done on the X-30 and XB-70 projects from the 60s.
It makes a lot more sense than UFOs at Groom Lake.

good.

[interactive_civilian]

Anything that is meant for inserting weapons into orbit should be shelved, IMNSHO. Maybe I'm spewing a bunch of "tree-hugging-hippy-crap", but I think it is best to keep weapons out of space.

Can we not, as a species, keep at least one place free of war and hostility? I know, that is probably a really tall order, but come on, human-kind! Grow up already!

BTW, I am by no means a luddite. I'm all about the space program and getting the human race a means to get off this planet. However, can we not leave these stupid, childish toys (i.e. weapons of war) behind while we do so? The cynic in me doubts this is possible, but I really want to believe so.

It seems infinitely sad to me that the primary motivation for most technological advance in the world is to come up with a better means of killing others.

/tree-hugging hippy

Re:good.

[Kesh]

The fatal flaw in your argument is that any vehicle designed to put anything into space is capable of deploying weapons there.

In the end it's to AVOID killing others

[Goldenhawk]

>It seems infinitely sad to me that the primary motivation
>for most technological advance in the world is to come up
>with a better means of killing others.

I'm sure I'll burn some karma on this, but I would beg to differ.

There is an interesting premise to Larry Niven's sci fi writing about the Kzin war - the Kzin telepaths reported to their masters that the humans had no military weaponry, and were sure to be an easy conquest. Yet when they first attacked, humanity threw them back in short order, because the civilian technology we DID have was so powerful it cut thru their military systems like butter.
http://www.larryniven.org/kzin/empire.htm
Hmmm.

I see things a little differently, however. I work for the US military as a civilian, directly involved in the procurement of weapons of war. Anyone in our organization will immediately tell you that the goal is not to wage war, but to avoid it. Ronald Reagan knew this when he emphasized his "peace thru superior firepower" mantra. If we allow ourselves to become weaker than our foes, we will find war waged upon us, simply because it's possible. Granted, the only way to stay ahead is to work hard at it, and stay atop the technological king-of-the-hill game. To many (and apparently to this person) it looks as if we want the weapons so we can use them - but I assure you that the vast majority of soldiers, airmen and marines in this country want nothing to do with going to war. I have great respect for the armed services in America, because they are willing to put themselves in death's way to free others. But nobody that I've ever talked with had any interest in conquering another county for the sake of expanding our territory, or taking something that was not already ours.

In the end, I find it fortunate that our military research ends up providing such dramatic benefits for the civilian world.

Practical observation

[amightywind]

How arrogant, to think that 'democracy' and 'capitalism' (american style of course) once adopted by those savage backward countries

'American style' is your embellishment, not my words. The need for democracy and capitalism is not so much derived form hubris as practical observation. What else to you suggest? Islamic faciscm? Stalinism? Maoist dictatorship?

Re:Shuttle?

[Spy Handler]

it probably couldn't carry enough payload for shuttle-style missions.

Re:So...

[delong]

It is just me or does it sound like a bigger, more complex version of SpaceShip One? Your tax dollars at work

Yeah, a bigger more complex version of SpaceShipOne that reaches orbit. Just like SpaceShipOne, a suborbital craft!

You guys are complaining?

[twifosp]

Lots of complaints in this thread about this article. Calling Slashdot the Weekly World News ect. Yet in the "Games: Gold Buying - Time Saver or Cheating?", people are taking it as seriously as possible. And let's not forget the "George Lucas Predicts Death of Big Budget Movies". Honestly... this is probably the best news story of the day. Sad.