DARPA scraps XS-1 military space plane project after Boeing drops out

WASHINGTON - Phantom Express won't get off the ground after all. Boeing has withdrawn from Experimental Spaceplane (XSP), a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program designed to increase the nation's access to space, writes Mike Wall for Space.com. Continue reading original article

The Intelligent Aerospace take:

January 24, 2020-DARPA wanted the Boeing "space plane" to be able to deliver satellites weighing up to 3,000 pounds (1,360 kg) into orbit as a low-cost, fast way to deliver the technology into space. Boeing is walking away from the program.

"We will now redirect our investment from XSP to other Boeing programs that span the sea, air and space domains," Boeing told Wall via email. "We're proud to have been part of a DARPA-led industry team that collaborated to advance launch-on-demand technology. We will make it a priority to harvest the significant learnings from this effort and apply them as Boeing continues to seek ways to provide future responsive, reusable access to space."

Related: Boeing continues development on XS-1 reusable hypersonic unmanned spacecraft

Related: Boeing chosen to help DARPA find ways to launch satellites inexpensively from aircraft in $30.7 million contract

Related: Military researchers issue industry solicitation for first phase of XS-1 project to develop hypersonic reusable space plane

Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace