Aviation week have an interesting story on the secret “Blackstar” project.
Now facing the possibility that this innovative “Blackstar” system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we’ve learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into “black world” history, known to only a few insiders. U.S. intelligence agencies may have quietly mothballed a highly classified two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system designed in the 1980s for reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery. It could be a victim of shrinking federal budgets strained by war costs, or it may not have met performance or operational goals.
And apparently it might have had space based weapon potential:
THE SPACEPLANE’S SMALL CARGO or “Q-bay” also could be configured to deliver specialized microsatellites to low Earth orbit or, perhaps, be fitted with no-warhead hypervelocity weapons–what military visionaries have called “rods from god.” Launched from the fringes of space, these high-Mach weapons could destroy deeply buried bunkers and weapons facilities.
[via Digg]