PHEOBUS 2A AND THE ASPEN

The PHOEBUS 2A reached the needed power levels to propel the ASPEN on 26 June 1968 (NASA 1991). This was three years after Bussard's prediction for ROVER. He had predicted that ROVER would reach a power level of 4.9 Gigawatts by 1965 (Atomic Energy Commission, 1961). This could be a sign of a NASA misinformation campaign. This definitely shows that America had created a rocket engine that could put a pound of payload into orbit for $16.53 in July 1968 dollars or $118.20 in 2018 CPI inflation adjusted dollars (Dewar and Bussard, 2009). It would have even been cheaper using an all nuclear ASPEN. The ANP/NEPA goal was to build a supersonic plane that ran exclusively on nuclear power (The Comptroller General Of The United States, 1963). Therefore the technology was there to build the ASPEN and cheaply deploy space weaponry in the form of lasers and nuclear bombs into orbit in 1968. This would not necessarily violate the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 because defensive lasers do not fall into the WMD category (Unoosa.org, 2018) . If an ASPEN was built before 1968 - there is ample reason to believe the needed power levels were reached before this - America probably put nuclear weapons into space under the CAMAL program. There are loop holes in this treaty. If, for example, the USA put an ORION into orbit, they could have put nuclear explosives in space that have a peaceful purpose (Dyson, 2003). Because they are used to propel the space craft. These charges could very easily be converted over to weapons purposes. 

Sources: 
Atomic Energy Commission (1961). ASPEN : AN AEROSPACE PLANE WITH NUCLEAR ENGINES. Los Alamos: University Of California, p.10.
http://lib-www.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/getfile?00384860.pdf
Comptroller General Of The United States (1963). REPORT TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: REVIEW OF MANNED AIRCRAFT NUCLEAR PROPULSION PROGRAM ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION AND DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. [online] Washington D.C., p.Comptroller General of the United States. Available at: https://fas.org/nuke/space/anp-gao1963.pdf [Accessed 29 Apr. 2018].
Dewar, J. and Bussard, R. (2009). The nuclear rocket. Burlington, Ont.: Apogee Books.
https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Rocket-Making-Peaceful-Prosperous/dp/189495999X/
Dyson, G. (2003). Project Orion. New York: Henry Holt.
https://www.amazon.com/Project-Orion-Story-Atomic-Spaceship/dp/0805072845
NASA (1991). ROVER NUCLEAR ROCKET ENGINE PROGRAM: OVERVIEW OF ROVER ENGINE TESTS FINAL REPORT. Huntsville, Alabama: NASA, p.70.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19920005899.pdf
Unoosa.org. (2018). Outer Space Treaty. [online] Available at: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/outerspacetreaty.html [Accessed 27 Apr. 2018].