specifications found on BlackVault
Speed: Maximum operational speeds are reported to be in the range of Mach 5-8.
Ceiling: May have an operational altitude of 150,000 feet (28.4 miles) or higher.
Engine type: Scram jet or Pulse Detonation Wave Engines
Armament: Possibly Phoenix Missiles
Main Mission: Reconnasaince

The multi-year NASA/industry Hyper-X program seeks to demonstrate airframe-integrated, "air-breathing" engine technologies that promise to increase payload capacity for future vehicles, including hypersonic aircraft (faster than Mach 5) and reusable space launchers. The X-43 will be the first free-flying demonstration of an airframe-integrated, air-breathing engine and will extend the flight range to Mach 10.

If the information is considered perishable; that is, subject to change quickly, it might be downloaded during the mission via satellite to Helendale or sent directly to NPIC in Washington, D.C. where CIA and other interpretation agencies could act upon it.

Coupled with this type of information is Keyhole and Joint STARS, both of which provide instant, high-resolution vertical and oblique images and electronic information of any location on Earth virtually at the speed of light.

The other interesting thing to note is what the "Cassiopeia" apparently is. While the design will be unfamiliar to some, to others, they will recognize the classic lines instantly (as I did). Named for yet another character from Greek mythology (notice that NASA names their ships while ANSA apparently does not (in the movies, that is)), the "Cassiopeia" is none other than the prototype design concept for the United States NASP National AeroSpace Plane, better known as the X-30 or the "Orient Express". I won't bore you with details on the X-30, suffice to say that it was cancelled long ago and that there are plenty of websites out there dealing with information on it if you are interested (and you should be, it was an amazing project). The NASP / X-30 / "Orient Express" was a single stage surface to orbit and back to surface reusable design intended to not only service space stations, but also to be a hypersonic commercial passenger liner that would have made the Concorde look like a single engine Cessna in comparison for speed. There was a rather bland movie done along the lines of the old "MAROONED" movie, where a NASP type vehicle suffers a malfunction and is stranded in orbit with all the passengers aboard. I think the name of the movie was "Starflight One" and it starred Lee Majors (of "Six Million Dollar Man" fame) as the pilot. It might be an interesting brain dead adventure if you have nothing better to do, or worth renting if you find it purely for the nostalgic value and to see how one of these vessels might have operated.

National AeroSpace Plane (NASP)/X-30
The NASP, NASA designation X-30, was a TAV. It was to airbreath to Mach 25 (orbital speed). Ref: Hannigan, Russell J., "Spaceflight in the Era of Aero-Space Planes," Krieger Publishing Co, 1994.
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NASP Derived Vehicle (NDV)
The NDV Ref: Hannigan, Russell J., "Spaceflight in the Era of Aero-Space Planes," Krieger Publishing Co, 1994.