Hmmm.

Haven't followed it in a while, but IIRC, Aurora was not confirmed
(other than doughnuts on rope sightings verifyig engine design), but my
expectation was that it was a lift body design, not a flying wing and
that it was expected to be used for surveillance.  Aurora's inception
coincides with the withdrawal of the SR-71.

There are also, IIRC again, some treaties in place that are in our
interest to not break regarding deployment of space-based weapons, and
one might question the envelope of Aurora to see if it might not meet
that criteria.

Further, President Clinton delivered quite a few cruise missiles to
Irag after the attempt on George Sr, so that pretty much sums up the
reluctance of the US to paste someone without entering airspace.

I don't even want to go into the engineering difficulties of delivering
a package from an extremely high orbit and what aeroheating would do it
and what measures would be required to make it an effective delivery
method.

Basically, Ian, my friendly advice is to stick with theory and not
weapons ideas, as you've not worked in the field before, and you seem
to be somewhat misinformed about the whole subject.  (Not a flame at
all, just a straightforward observation from my POV.)  I think your
other ideas about deep space flight are a good read, but I'd suggest
you relax about weapons rumors.  Just my 2 cents.

Watch the Science or Discovery channel sometime - all you have to do
from space is drop a big rock on someone and it could be game over.  On
that account, you're right - we already have sufficient technology to
attack anywhere, anytime from above already, so what would the point
be?

As far as Aurora going Mach 15, the number I recall was 5 and the
target range was 4 to 8.  If there's some new project following Aurora,
please cite references for your info.  You can google up plenty with
"aurora aircraft" to prolly see some correct references.

I still think artificial telepathy and telekenesis (AT&T) and
intelligent telepathy and telekinesis (IT&T) are more interesting that
artificial intelligence and so do Al Veolar and Al Fresco - but that's
just us.

The Pearl

"Going so fast my hair's on fire since 1992."