The National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) program has a wide range of technical challenges associated with it. In the process of finding solutions to these unknowns, NASP has enabled advancements across a broad scope of technologies. This state-of-the-art work is being performed by 5 major aerospace companies (General Dynamics, McDonnell-Douglas, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell International, and Rocketdyne), over 500 subcontractors (including universities) and 15 major U.S. government research laboratories. This variety of affected technologies and large extent of interaction with national organizations are building an important foundation for U.S. technological preeminence in the international aerospace marketplace.
The more concrete, longer-term benefits include both low cost, flexible access to space (i.e. Earth orbit) and possibilities for military and civil hypersonic aircraft. In addition, both long and shorter-term benefits will amount from the applications of these NASP developed technologies. Naturally, they will have an impact on the aerospace industry, but short-term benefits are also beginning to surface in other industries such as chemicals, energy, medicine, and automobiles.