Coming Attractions: Hypersonic Aircraft

"NASA X-43 (Hyper-X) Hypersonic Aircraft, USA"
aerospace-technology.com

This page is an overview of NASA's HX-43 aircraft series. What's exciting to me about this research is the very real possibility that it could lead to efficient and effective transport to and from low Earth orbit.

Now, we throw away considerable parts of the spacecraft with each launch.

A generation or so beyond the HX-43 series, and we could have shuttles that take off and land at (large) airports, use oxygen from the atmosphere for most of their flight, and throw nothing away in the process.

Exciting. Particularly since one possible fuel is hydrogen - which, combined with oxygen, produces water as exhaust. Think 'low environmental impact.'