The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has given contracts for the development of an XS-1 Experimental Spaceplane to three companies.
The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has given contracts for the development of an XS-1 Experimental Spaceplane to three companies.
What the agency is looking for is an unmanned, reusable aircraft that can launch satellites quickly, easily, and for a lot less money than the current cost of doing so.
Currently sending a satellite into space requires scheduling a launch slot years in advance and laying out hundreds of millions of dollars.
DARPA would like to streamline that process, establish launches as a more regular occurrence, and have them cost less than 5 million dollars per mission.
They’ve given about 4 million dollars a piece to The Boeing Company, Masten Space Systems, and Northrop Grumman Corporation to design something that will make that happen.
It’s DARPA’s request that the suborbital plane be able to make 10 trips in 10 days, reach Mach 10 speeds, and, of course, be able to deliver a payload into space.
Developers are expected to produce a demonstration vehicle and provide a detailed manufacturing plan.
Said a project manager with the agency, “We’re eager to see how their initial designs envision making spaceflight commonplace.”
