A HACKER has broken into a supposedly secure NASA website and stolen blueprints for its next generation of reusable launch vehicles. This information could help rogue states put spy satellites or even space-based weapons into orbit.
The theft came to light on 7 August when Dan Verton, a journalist at US-based Computerworld magazine received an email containing 43 megabytes of documents from a hacker nicknamed RaFa. The documents included detailed mechanical designs for COBRA, a reusable, hydrogen-fuelled rocket booster being developed by Florida-based Pratt and Whitney, and Aerojet, an aerospace company based in Sacramento, California.
The engine could be used…
