One Piece at a Time

"Well, it's a '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56, '57, '58' 59', '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '67, '68, '69, '70 automobile..."

While reviewing noteworthy web posts from last year, I ran across this article again:

Article: Can a Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) Spacecraft Enter Orbit?

The first time I read it I didn't think much about it. But, this time I realized how compelling it would be to send mass, in increments to and from low earth orbit, using this approach.

"Payloads can be held here for staging to orbital craft as well. Once in orbit, the craft can drop payload, and slowly return to the Earth. Because reentry is gradual, there may be ways to prevent the high-energy reentry with the requisite heat and deceleration."

Perhaps the company discussed in the article, JP Aerospace, is involved in a black program that uses the new NCTF hangar for housing their airships. They're based in Rancho Cordova, CA near Aerojet.

I haven't fully reviewed the feasibility of this approach, however I have considered a few things. The larger JP Aerospace airship would fit (barely) into the new hangar in one of two ways - posted below. If there were two of these airships, I suppose that could also explain why there are doors on both sides.

Images: Near Space Maneuvering Vehicle in NCTF Hangar




I looked for reasons this would not work at the new hangar and some things I could think of are storage of LTA gas and time to launch and recover - within the windows they would have at night.

Perhaps the LTA gas is intended to be stored in the berms. I can see why they'd want to block line of sight, but they don't cover the entire field of view into the hangar. The lack of full field of view coverage tells me the berms are there to cover something, since they did not need to move that much soil to build the hangar.

I did look into federal contracts let to JP Aerospace in the last ten years and have only seen $99K total, which simply could not fund a program like this alone. However, they certainly could have recieved funding from a prime contractor (such as Lockheed). Also, I don't believe all black programs can be tracked to specific amounts anyway.

Any thoughts?

Other links of interest:

Thread: Exoatmospheric Operations Escalation?

Link: JP Aerospace

Doc: Airship to Orbit

Video: One Piece at a Time by Johnny Cash