Unclassified Spacelift: Suborbital, Earth to Orbit and On- Orbit

A vision for the future: In 2020, aerospace forces will be a reality. A notional composite aerospace wing, based in the continental United States (CONUS), would include a squadron of rocket-powered transatmospheric vehicles (TAV). These Black Horse vehicles, derived from the Question Mark 2 X-vehicle shown in figure 1 and described later in this paper, will be fighter-sized airframes capable of placing an approximately 5,000 pound payload in any low earth orbit (LEO), or delivering a slightly larger payload on a suborbital trajectory to any point in the world. A Black Horse vehicle could accomplish either task within one hour of completion of mission planning, assuming that the payload was available at the base and the vehicles were on alert. When operating in support of a war-fighting commander in chief (CINC), the aerospace wing will thus have the capability to put mission-specific payloads on orbit (mission-tailored satellites) or on target literally within a few hours of identification of a need. Most missions-except some suborbital operational and ferry/deployment missions--will require aerial propellant transfer from modified KC-XX aircraft.