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/ /f91t OFFl@IAL YSE 8HLY One of the difficulties with silicon carbide (SiC) is that it is ridged fibers, like very-small diameter rods. When the NASP team visited Japan in 1988, one of the very interesting products of the UBE Corporation was Tyranno® cloth (see Figure 23). Composed of strong, flexible fibers from natural Feldspar, Tyranno cloth handled and felt like tweed cloth. The cloth could be wetted by liquid aluminum or titanium, and the NASP team saw examples of both aluminum and titanium metal matrix composite (MMC) products . For example, an aluminum MMC piston and connecting rod was being used in Kawasaki racing engines. And a powder form of aluminum MMC was being used as a dry pigment that was fused onto the surface of Kawasaki motorcycle mufflers. The MDC NASP team foresaw many applications for Tyranno cloth for its NASP aircraft. Figure 22. This 1988 SEP Bordeaux SiC/SiC Panel Figure 23. UBE Corporation's Tyranno Cloth. The Could Sustain Temperatures of up to 3,000 °F. cloth was used industrially in Japan. With SEP having subsequently closed, little of this capability remains. The FDL-7 and Model 176 configurations always elicit comments that their sharpness and the associated high heating rates make them nonviable concepts. However, that is not the case. Figure 24 shows a 1-inch diameter, sintered-nickel nose tip attached to a 1,000-psi water tank that sweats water. The result is a functional sharp, low-drag nose with a minimum-thickness entropy boundary layer. 12 This tip was flight-tested on a hypersonic glider (BGRV flight in 1966) beginning at about 22,000 feet/second . Today, Aerojet Sacramento's platelet diffusion-bonding technique would Figure 24. A Porous Nickel Tip Oozing Water.make this a much easier task. Some This test lasted 4,300 seconds before the arc experimental evidence from the BGRV flight heater cathode-not the nose tip-failed. indicates the water vapor film in the boundary did act to reduce the heat transfer to the body aft of the nose. UNCLASSIFIED/} FOR OFFICiftL tJ9I!!! 8HLY 21
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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.