Tag: X-37B

DARPA has selected the Boeing Company to complete advanced design work for the Agency’s Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program, which aims to build and fly the first of an entirely new class of hypersonic, suborbital aircraft that would provide short-notice, low-cost access to space.

India conducted the first flight test of its ‘Reusable Launch Vehicle’ (RLV) developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Monday, May 23, 2016, as the 6.7 m’ (22 ft) long vehicle was launched on top an HS9 solid rocket booster. Unlike the American space shuttle or X-37B space plane that perform most of their mission in orbit, the Indian RLV is designed to provide a reusable ‘upper stage’, to assist bringing satellites to orbit.

Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Masten Space Systems have won additional funding from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to continue developing their concepts for the United States military's XS-1 robotic space plane under the program's second phase (Phase 1B).

The launch of the second X37B Space Plane is scheduled for tomorrow. The unique capability of this plane appears to be its ability to return from orbit and land autonomously on a runway. But the Air Force has not disclosed the specific mission this plane is designed for. "The space plane is an extravagant system without a convincing mission" Dr. Laura Grego of the UCS comments.

After spending 220 days in space the U.S. Air Force's X-37B unmanned re-entry spacecraft landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base just after midnight (1:16am...

The U.S. Air Force launched the newest and most advanced unmanned re-entry spacecraft today, April 22nd, 2010 at 7:52PM from Cape Canaveral Air Station,...