Blackstar (spacecraft)

Blackstar is the reported name of a secret United States orbital spaceplane system whose existence has never been officially confirmed. The claim that such a program existed was made in March 2006 by an article in Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, which reported that the program had been underway since at least the early 1990s and that its purpose was to preserve orbital reconnaissance capability that the United States government worried had been put at risk by the 1986 Challenger disaster. The same article said the United States Air Force's Space Command was unaware of Blackstar, suggesting that the program, if real, was operated by an intelligence agency such as the National Reconnaissance Office rather than the Air Force. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/