DARPA
Manufacturer - The Boeing Company
XS-1 on Wikipedia
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DARPA
Manufacturer - The Boeing Company
XS-1 on Wikipedia
https://youtu.be/tEZDWoJdC7w
Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) Phase 2/3 Concept Video
Published on May 24, 2017
"DARPA Picks Design for Next-Generation Spaceplane"Quote:
DARPA has selected The Boeing Company to complete advanced design work for the Agency’s Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program, which aims to build and fly the first of an entirely new class of hypersonic aircraft that would bolster national security by providing short-notice, low-cost access to space. The program aims to achieve a capability well out of reach today—launches to low Earth orbit in days, as compared to the months or years of preparation currently needed to get a single satellite on orbit. Success will depend upon significant advances in both technical capabilities and ground operations, but would revolutionize the Nation’s ability to recover from a catastrophic loss of military or commercial satellites, upon which the Nation today is critically dependent.
In its pursuit of aircraft-like operability, reliability, and cost-efficiency, DARPA and Boeing are planning to conduct a flight test demonstration of XS-1 technology, flying 10 times in 10 days, initially without an upper stage. If successful, the program could help enable a commercial service in the future that could operate with recurring costs of as little as $5 million or less per launch, including the cost of an expendable upper stage, assuming a recurring flight rate of at least ten flights per year—a small fraction of the cost of launch systems the U.S. military currently uses for similarly sized payloads. (Note that goal is for actual cost, not commercial price, which would be determined in part by market forces.)
Agency partners with Boeing to build and fly an experimental vehicle for aircraft-like access to space
May 24, 2017
https://youtu.be/9AkXp4VSB0k
Boeing Experimental Spaceplane XS-1 (Phantom Express spaceplane)
Published on May 24, 2017
Quote:
DARPA has selected Boeing to complete advanced design work for the Experimental Spaceplane XS-1. The XS-1 program envisions a fully reusable unmanned vehicle, the Phantom Express spaceplane, which would take off vertically like a rocket and fly to hypersonic speeds to the edge of space. Upon reaching a high suborbital altitude, the booster would release an expendable upper stage able to deploy a 3,000-pound satellite to polar orbit at a cost of $5M. The reusable first stage would then bank and return to Earth, landing horizontally like an aircraft, and be prepared for the next flight, potentially within hours.