XS-1 (spacecraft)

The DARPA XS-1 was an experimental spaceplane/booster with the planned capability to deliver small satellites into orbit for the U.S. Military.[1] It was reported to be designed to be reusable as frequently as once a day, with a stated goal of doing so for 10 days straight.[2] The XS-1 was intended to directly replace the first stage of a multistage rocket by taking off vertically and flying to hypersonic speed and high suborbital altitude, enabling one or more expendable upper stages to separate and deploy a payload into low Earth orbit. The XS-1 would then return to Earth, where it could ostensibly be serviced fast enough to repeat the process at least once every 24 hours.[3][4]

The DARPA XS-1 program operated 2013–2020.[5] After several years of refinement and proposals, in May 2017, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)[6] selected Boeing for Phase 2/3 to build and test an XS-1 spacecraft (now called the Experimental Spaceplane program).[7] At the time, test flights were scheduled to start no earlier than 2020.[7] On 22 January 2020, it was announced that Boeing was ceasing its role in the program, effectively ending it.[8]

  1. ^ David Axe (2015-08-03). "Pentagon Preps for Orbital War With New Spaceplane". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
  2. ^ "Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1)". DARPA. Archived from the original on 2016-06-16. Retrieved 2016-06-20.
  3. ^ Foust, Jeff (2013-09-12). "DARPA To Start Reusable Launch Vehicle Program". Space News. Archived from the original on September 13, 2013. Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  4. ^ Howell, Elizabeth (1 May 2015). "XS-1: DARPA's Experimental Spaceplane". Space.com. Retrieved 2015-05-14.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference aw20131202 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency". www.darpa.mil. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  7. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference D2017-05 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference SpNews_01-22-20 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).