"Phantom Express" approved for quick launches into low Earth orbit
The military's next reusable space plane has gotten the go-ahead from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and could be in flight tests by 2020.
The agency picked Boeing's futuristic XS-1 for the tests, and it is being called the biggest revolution for military space programs since Redstone rockets took their first flights in the 1950s.
"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," the agency said in a news release.
The unmanned craft appears to be a beefier version of Boeing's X-37B space plane, which also stemmed from a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency project. The X-37 program includes a vehicle that recently landed after two years in orbit. The craft carried an experimental thruster and a NASA test aboard, but Air Force brass have been mum as to the X-37's other missions.
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