DARPA awards contracts for XS-1 spaceplane
The competition heats up: DARPA has announced contract awards to three companies for the construction of its experimental XS-1 spaceplane, designed to take off and land like a airplane.
The contracts go to Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Masten Space Systems, and have them each respectively partnered with Blue Origin, XCOR, and Virgin Galactic. More details on the Boeing contract can be found here.
The description of the XS program is quite exciting:
The XS-1 program aims to develop a fully-reusable unmanned vehicle that would provide aircraft-like access to space and deploy small satellites to orbit using expendable upper stages. XS-1 seeks to deploy small satellites faster and more affordably, and develop technology for next-generation hypersonic vehicles.
XS-1 envisions that a reusable first stage would fly to hypersonic speeds at a suborbital altitude. At that point, one or more expendable upper stages would separate and deploy a satellite into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The reusable first stage would then return to earth, land and be prepared for the next flight. Modular components, durable thermal protection systems and automatic launch, flight and recovery systems should significantly reduce logistical needs, enabling rapid turnaround between flights.
Key XS-1 technical goals include flying 10 times in 10 days, flying to Mach 10+ at least once and launching a representative small payload to orbit. The program also seeks to reduce the cost of access to space for 3,000- to 5,000-pound payloads to less than $5 million per flight.
It would seem that, if we include SpaceX and Stratolaunch, there is an increasing confluence of forces for the development of a reusable first stage.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The competition heats up: DARPA has announced contract awards to three companies for the construction of its experimental XS-1 spaceplane, designed to take off and land like a airplane.
The contracts go to Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Masten Space Systems, and have them each respectively partnered with Blue Origin, XCOR, and Virgin Galactic. More details on the Boeing contract can be found here.
The description of the XS program is quite exciting:
The XS-1 program aims to develop a fully-reusable unmanned vehicle that would provide aircraft-like access to space and deploy small satellites to orbit using expendable upper stages. XS-1 seeks to deploy small satellites faster and more affordably, and develop technology for next-generation hypersonic vehicles.
XS-1 envisions that a reusable first stage would fly to hypersonic speeds at a suborbital altitude. At that point, one or more expendable upper stages would separate and deploy a satellite into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The reusable first stage would then return to earth, land and be prepared for the next flight. Modular components, durable thermal protection systems and automatic launch, flight and recovery systems should significantly reduce logistical needs, enabling rapid turnaround between flights.
Key XS-1 technical goals include flying 10 times in 10 days, flying to Mach 10+ at least once and launching a representative small payload to orbit. The program also seeks to reduce the cost of access to space for 3,000- to 5,000-pound payloads to less than $5 million per flight.
It would seem that, if we include SpaceX and Stratolaunch, there is an increasing confluence of forces for the development of a reusable first stage.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
If we can develop a true SSTO capability that would be very exciting. My concern is that aerospace development seems to be moving in the direction of unmanned vehicles. Sure, they’re cheaper, safer, and less complex than crewed craft, but for the general public to get excited about these developments, you need people in the pointy end.
The key here is the engineering. If an easily reusable first stage can be developed, even if it for unmanned payloads, that engineering will significantly lower the cost to orbit, which in turn will make manned payloads more affordable. Moreover, the science fiction nature of these reusable space planes makes them cool, which also gets the public excited.
Overall, I see no downside to any of this. When it comes to space exploration, we are beginning to move into very exciting times.
Didn’t we learn from the shuttle program that, unless a quantum leap in technology is made, this type of craft is just too expensive?
With respect, and I do mean respect, I think you may be overestimating the American public appetite for shooting unmanned cargo ships into orbit. The cultural landscape has changed from ‘can do’ to ‘what can you do for me’. As DK Williams points out, Shuttle was horrendously expensive, but could put seven people into orbit and 65,000 lbs of cargo. It could also return those same people and 35,000 lbs on a somewhat regular basis. Yes, the service record was spotty, but it did happen.
My thesis is that if you want to inspire the next generation, they need something more than ground control jobs.
Maybe so, but I am still focused on the engineering that will come out of this, even if the XS-1 goes nowhere, as do most of these kinds of projects. A large number of the companies listed in this contract award are aggressively using this engineering to build manned vessels.
Blair,
I think that we can agree that Americans *do* favor manned launches over unmanned, but Americans also want our rockets to be safe when they launch their crews. There are also a lot of advantage that we gain from our unmanned payloads; they are also very important, even if they are not as sexy or exciting. They are like the power plant; we don’t pay attention to them, either, but we all expect the lights to turn on at the flick of a wall switch.
The unmanned launches can be considered as “proving grounds” for the rockets and associated hardware. Once everyone is happy with the unmanned launches, then the hardware can be adapted for manned use.
The Atlas V is an example of a rocket that proved itself as reliable during unmanned use, so when commercial manned spacecraft were being planned, they chose that rocket.
The Air Force even requires a certain number of successful launches before they will allow their *unmanned* payloads on them. SpaceX recently had a public dispute about that.
I think that it is reasonable for us to expect the technology, not just the hardware, to be proven before we put people on board. That turned out to be a mistake with the Space Shuttle. It was not as ready for prime time as we were led to believe.