DARPA Sets Deadline To Submit Designs For XS-1 Military Space Plane

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has recently revealed its proposals for building a futuristic satellite-launching robotic space plane. The aim of the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) project is to construct a reusable plane, which at its best performance, would be able to make 10 flights in 10 days, launch a payload into low Earth orbit whose weight will be capable of being adjusted, and cost no more than $5 million per flight.

Generally, spacecrafts are not totally reusable and the components that are reused need to go through lengthy safety checks in between flights. According to the DARPA officials, XS-1 will be used mainly as a reasonable and fast medium for reaching satellites to space. The organization is already working with three groups for the space plane's design that have been given a deadline of July 22 to submit their design proposals. DARPA will reportedly select one of the groups to award the XS-1 prototype construction project for flight testing.

"Current satellite launch systems, however, require scheduling years in advance for an extremely limited inventory of available slots. Moreover, launches often cost hundreds of millions of dollars each, due in large part to the massive amounts of dedicated infrastructure and large number of personnel required," DARPA stated on its website. The XS-1 program will overcome the aforementioned challenges, according to officials from the organization, to create a new model for developing space operations that are affordable, responsive and comparatively faster as far as reaching the capabilities to space is concerned. According to DARPA, such measures are of utmost necessity for national and economic security, apart from finding out efficient and affordable methods. The XS-1 program started in 2013 with the initial aim of launching the first test flight in 2018, however it has now being speculated that the first takeoff can only happen sometime in 2019 or 2020.