The Pentagon\u2019s research and development agency has announced they are one step closer to building an entirely new class of hypersonic aircraft that will allow for cheaper, more reliable, fully automated space travel as early as 2020. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced<\/a> that Boeing will continue to work with them on the next phase of their Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program. The goal of the program is to build an autonomous aircraft that\u2019s capable of launching into orbit 10 times over the course of 10 days by 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cThe XS-1 would be neither a traditional airplane nor a conventional launch vehicle but rather a combination of the two,\u201d<\/em> Jess Sponable, DARPA program manager, said in a news release.<\/p>\n Roughly the size and weight of a modern business jet, the spaceplane, known as the Phantom Express, will be able to take off vertically like a rocket and fly at hypersonic speeds.<\/p>\n The current design of the Phantom Express does not include external boosters like a modern spaceship. It will be powered by an Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 engine using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants.<\/p>\n \u201cThis engine has a demonstrated track record of solid performance and proven reusability,\u201d<\/em> Eileen Drake, president and CEO of Aerojet Rocketdyne, said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once in space, the Phantom Express will be capable of deploying a small satellite weighing up to 3,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit, according to a news release<\/a> from Boeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the journey back to Earth, the space plane will land horizontally on a runway, where it can be prepared for the next flight \u201cpotentially within hours,\u201d<\/em> according to DARPA.<\/p>\n