AAWSAP DIRD, Space Access: Where We’ve Been and Where We Could Go, March 2010

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 18, radiation equilibrium skin temperature is the skin temperature that resu lts
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Figure 18. FDL-7C/D, Model 176 Entry Temperature Distribution. Upper- su rface heating is minim ized by
cross-section geometry.
Figure 19 is a thermographic phosphor
image of the model in Figure 17 at a 12-
degree angle of attack (maximum L/D
ratio) at mach 12. Even at mach 12,
there are vortices embedded in the
boundary layer. The three black dots are
heat transfer gauges that were used to
establish the value for qrefin Figure 19.
The stagnation heat transfer was 25
times the reference value. Th is
technique, when calibrated with the ,, - no
reference heat transfer gauges, provided
a rap id and accu rate means to determine
heat transfer distributions with a
minimum of installed gauges. The
technique was adopted by other wind
tunnel facil ities, including the Arnold
Engineering Development Center at
Tu ll ahoma, Tennessee.
Figure 19. Even at Mach 12, Embedded Vortices in
the Boundary Layer Alter the Local Heat Transfer
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