Boeing and DARPA join forces on space plane program

Dubbed Phantom Express, the hypersonic aircraft is being developed under DARPA’s Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. According to the agency, it could radically reduce the cost of putting a satellite in orbit and bolster the ability to recover from the unexpected loss of critical military and commercial satellites.

Roughly the size of a business jet, the unmanned aircraft will take off vertically like a rocket and fly to hypersonic speeds. Once it reaches the edge of space, it will release an expendable second stage able to deploy a satellite. The reusable first stage would then bank and return to Earth, landing horizontally like an aircraft, and be prepared for the next flight.

“Phantom Express is designed to disrupt and transform the satellite launch process as we know it today, creating a new, on-demand space-launch capability that can be achieved more affordably and with less risk,” said Darryl Davis, president, Boeing Phantom Works.