DARPA and Boeing Team Up to Build a Hypersonic Spaceplane
May 25th, 2017Via: Popular Mechanics:
DARPA announced today that it has selected Boeing to design and build a new reusable, hypersonic spaceplane called the Phantom Express that would fly into high suborbital altitudes to launch satellites into orbit before coming back down to land horizontally like an airplane.
The unmanned craft, part of the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program, would release a small expendable upper stage rocket after it reaches suborbital altitudes. The upper stage would continue to carry the payload to orbit while the first stage—the spaceplane itself—would bank and return to Earth to land on a runway. DARPA hopes the XS-1 will allow the Department of Defense to launch satellites into low Earth orbit with only a few days’ notice, compared to the months it currently takes to plan satellite launches, and that the spaceplane will be capable of landing and relaunching within hours.
