New Scientist September 25, 2004
Target Earth
THE Pentagon is pressing ahead with a controversial plan to develop an uncrewed spaceplane that will ultimately be able to drop bombs from the edge of space on targets almost anywhere on Earth. The aim is to give the US the ability to strike any target within two hours, from bases on the US mainland.
DARPA, the Pentagon's research arm, last week chose four aerospace firms to come up with preliminary designs for a rocket-launched sub-orbital spaceplane called Falcon. By 2010, an early version will travel at Mach 6 and lift a 500-kilogram bomb load to an altitude of 100 kilometres. By 2025, it wants to have developed an air-breathing hypersonic engine that will take off like a normal plane and carry 5500 kilograms of bombs or missiles to similar altitudes, travelling nearly 17,000 kilometres in 2 hours.
DARPA has taken over NASA's abortive X-37 spaceplane, which looks likely to be adapted for the bomber project. The X-37 was conceived as a reusable orbital craft, launched on the back of a rocket, that would ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and then glide back to Earth. Before NASA abandoned X-37 this year, it built an unpowered airframe that DARPA is now expected to use in aerodynamic drop tests.
When the idea of a space bomber was raised three years ago it was greeted with disbelief . But John Pike, an analyst with globalsecurity.org, says the Pentagon is determined to build it. "They have a real fascination with this suborbital glide bomber. They've really latched onto it."
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