DARPA’s Next Space Shuttle Could Fly Without Pilot

DARPA's newest space shuttle will fly without a pilot, and will not go to space. People around the world have been following the progress of DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) as it works on XS-1 project.

DARPA calls its newest XS-1 project a 'space plane'.  XS-1 will never enter orbit itself unlike the Space Shuttle, but rather rocket to the edge of space, boosting a payload the rest of the way into low Earth orbit as reported on Spectrum.

As soon as it releases the payload, XS-1 will then land like an airplane, refuel, and be ready to launch again on the following day. DARPA ideally DARPA prefers its space shuttle to be very reliable and reusable that it can fly ten times in matter of ten days. Because it is a drone, XS-1 will have no pilot.

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has already wrapped up the first Phase of the XS-1project. DARPA partners with 3 industry teams: privately held Masten Space Systems, working with also-private XCOR Aerospace; Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) plus Virgin Galactic; and Boeing (NYSE:BA), working in collaboration with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. These industries aided DARPA in exploring the technical feasibility of creating a space plane/space shuttle that is capable of delivering payloads to orbit at a cost of $5 million per flight according to a report on The Motley Fool.

During the Proposers Day held just the previous month, DARPA clarifies that it intends to award $140 million to the winner of the Phase 2 and 3 contracts.

The odds on the XS-1 competition are not actually easy. For instance, Boeing already possesses an unmanned vehicle capable of orbital flight: the X-37B drone space shuttle which is used for delivering military payloads to orbit. Nevertheless, the X-37B drone space shuttle is indeed highly classified. There is little knowledge on how much it actually costs or whether it will come close to DARPA's projected $5 million-per-mission price tag. Above all, being a true spaceship, X-37B does not exactly match the concept of a suborbital "space plane" as envisioned by DARPA.