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/ /P91t 9ffl@IAL l:ISI: &PU.¥ Al Draper assembled the ASSET (Aerothermodynamic Structural and System Environmental Test) experimental flight-test program to evaluate current U.S. Air Force and NASA materials for hypersonic entry veh icles . The intent was to launch a test vehicle from an Air Force Thor IRBM in the 18,000 to 20,000 feet/second range and recover the vehicle. The ASSET glider was approximately the forward portion of the X- 20 Dynasoar vehicle and is shown in Figure 25 after recovery. Except for the carbon leading edges, the materials generally performed as required. As a result, a small team of McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company engineers and model builders began working on an alternative approach for the leading edges. This team's efforts resulted in the heat pipe leading edge shown in Figure 26, a series of formed stainless steel tubes brazed together to form a leading edge based on NASA space shuttle requirements. The tubes contained a stainless steel mesh wick and were filled with metallic sodium. figure 25. FOL ASSET flight-Tested From Orbital Figure 26. Heat Pipe Shuttle Leading Edge Speeds To Evaluate 1960s' Materials. Carbon Designed and Built by McDonnell Douglas leading edges proved the least durable. Astronautics. Tested extensively at McDonnell Douglas Corporation, St. Louis, and NASA Langley, it never failed . The leading edge was tested in NASA Langley's 8-foot High-Temperature Structures Tunnel, the NASA Langley Radiation Thermal Test Facility and the McDonnell Douglas Graphite Thermal-Altitude Test Facility (graphite radiation heaters within a vacuum altitude chamber). All of these tests showed the installed leading edge to be durable, robust, and lightweight (equaled the installed NASA carbon-carbon leading edges). Starts from cold tubes showed the sodium melts and began the heat pump process without any difficulties. Because this leading edge was made by the engineers and mechanics as a one of a kind, the tubes developed thermal shorts and other problems over the span of the testing, all of which were rectified before the test continued. Although brittle and difficult to manufacture, this leading edge met the thermodynamacists' solution of a simple radiation structure, not a heat pump. 13 UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR OFFICIO ls. !lili QPlls.¥ 22
Not linked to a story yet.
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.