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.
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Figure 15. Both Delta Planform Lifting Body {Dynasoar) and Model 176 Offer Superior Landing
Performance
Thermodynamics and Materials
The structure of Model 176 was based on diffusion-bonding and super-plastic forming of
flat titanium sheets. Forty years ago, the method was called "roll bonding" and
executed with the titanium sealed within an evacuated steel envelope and processed in
a steel rolling plant. With a lot of effort and chemical leaching, the titanium part was
freed from its steel enclosure. All of that has been completely replaced today by the
current titanium diffusion-bonding and super-plastic forming industrial capabilities. The
photo in Figure 16 is from a Society of Automotive Engineers book titled Advanced
Engine Development at Pratt & Whitney: The Inside Story of Eight Special Projects 146-
1971, by Dick Mulready. Chapter 6, "Boost Glide and the XLR-129 - mach 20 at
200,000 Feet," shows a surviving remnant from the 1960s program.
The super-plastic-forming, diffusion bonding that was so difficult in early 1960 is now
an accepted fabrication procedure. One of the F-1 S's major bulkheads was fabricated
from titanium sheet elements using this procedure instead of machining away more
than 90 percent of a titanium forging. Had the procedure been adopted as a product
manufacturing method, it would have eliminated the almost 2-year manufacturing cycle
in acquiring titanium forging of the wing spars and major bulkheads. Note that only 2.5
percent of the thermal heating enters the primary structure .
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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.