I’ve written about Aviation Week’s just-released article on the supposed Blackstar spaceplane project, possibly run by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and aerospace contractors.

Long-rumored, apparently incorrectly, to be code-named Aurora, the project may have been cancelled but reportedly involved a mothership, a modified XB-70 Mach-3 bomber designated the SR-3, and several lifting body manned orbiters designated XOV-1, XOV-2, etc. The SR-3 was said to have been built using long-lead structural items for a third XB-70 that had been kept in storage.

In my AeroGo post I discuss some of the noteworthy features reported about the orbiters, in particular the report of a high-energy boron-based gel propellant that may have powered linear aerospike engines, a promising rocket technology that NASA was developing in the 1990s for the X-33/VentureStar shuttle replacement, which was ultimately cancelled.

I also note a few questions that may now be answered, and others that remain.