Documents / Official release
This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 8 March 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. It is one of a series of advanced technology reports. It surveys the history of space access concepts, covering hypersonic gliders, air-breathing and rocket propulsion, materials, launch options and operating costs. The report argues that reliable, schedulable access to low Earth orbit is mainly a hardware and organizational problem rather than a technology problem.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 3/8/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD is a historical and conceptual survey of space access systems, contending that the main barrier to routine access to space is a failure to build durable, reliable, operational hardware and the supporting infrastructure needed for regular service to and from low Earth orbit. The report reviews earlier launch and aerospace concepts, especially reusable and aircraft-like approaches, and suggests that U.S. space access development became too strongly centered on expendable rockets derived from ballistic missiles rather than bespoke systems designed for repeated space access and payload delivery. Its central claim is that meaningful future progress will depend on creating a purpose-built space transportation infrastructure, including frequent round-trip capability and orbital support networks, rather than continuing to rely on one-off launch vehicles. Overall, the document presents a forceful case for infrastructure-first space development, though its characterization of past technological choices is more assertive than a fully neutral account of past U.S. space programming.
-- UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR OFFl@IAL l::l!H! 8HL'I McDonnell Aircraft Advanced Design Dept. 1958 to 1967 Mr. H. D.Altis , Director Figure 3. HSVS Hypersonic Cruise Aircraft Showing True Skin Temperature A wide variety of configurations for recoverable spacecraft are possible. But if the requirements for a transportation system capable of traveling to and returning from space are to be met, the configurations spectrum is significantly narrowed. Two basic configuration types emerge. One configuration is for a hypersonic glider powered by either rocket or air-breathing rocket cycle propulsion that can operate as air-breathing propulsion to mach 5.5 or less. A versatile variable-capture, inward-turning inlet4 can be integrated with the vehicle configuration derived from the FDL series of hypersonic gliders developed by the U.S . Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory (AFFDL) 5 and the work of the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company. Because of the mass ratio to orbit, these configurations are vertical takeoff and horizontal landing vehicles, exemplified by the upper-left vehicle in Figure 4. This vehicle is usually an upper stage in a two-stage-to-orbit rather than a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle. UNCLASSIFIED/ /EAR OFFICIO I. Uiliii 0PUi!lf 3
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 56 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.