DARPA’s Spaceplane Could Soon Launch

DARPA’s Spaceplane Could Soon Launch

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The space race is heating up again in recent years, but this time it’s not major world powers that are competing against each other, but relatively small firms in the private sector. One US government agency, however, has ambitious plans of its own.

The Defence Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) is pushing ahead its very own space launch solutions. The agency is developing a spaceplane-based launch system called the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1). They’ve just come out of Phase 1 planning, and are moving forward to the next stage: building.

The XS-1 is not set to replace the shuttle, but occupies a category of its own. The main body of the XS-1 is designed for unmanned sub-orbital flight only. After launch, the XS-1 would accelerate to near-escape velocity and gain altitude. Then, the upper stage would disengage and carry on to deliver its payload to orbit.

The upper stage is designed to be small, expendable, and inexpensive. The bulky spaceplane would the return to the Earth’s surface, to be readied for further missions. This configuration is believed to be more efficient, as the vehicle could be serviced much faster than previous spaceplane designs.

Three firms participated in Phase 1 to design different versions of the XS-1 vehicles: Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Masten Space Systems. Only one of them will be awarded the contract to build an actual prototype in Phase 2.

The prototype is projected to be about the size of a commercial airliner, and DARPA has a shopping list of qualities it expects to see in the final product. Among them are heat-resistant composites, and most importantly, a modular design that will allow for faster servicing.

The programme was kicked off in 2014, and DARPA hopes to see the first spaceplane launch as soon as 2019. Phase 2 will kick off on 29 April in Virginia.