Aww, that's the shame of the approval time lag. It's so much prettier and more detailed now.
Quote from: strangequark on 04/08/2016 12:28 amAww, that's the shame of the approval time lag. It's so much prettier and more detailed now.Yeah, I remember how viscerally frustrating it was having to wait 30 days for getting formal DARPA approval for just about any public communication (even a freaking tweet). That's probably my single biggest gripe about our experience working with DARPA on the Phoenix program.I noticed that the pictures in Dave's presentation looked newer and more refined.~Jon
http://spacenews.com/darpa-experimental-spaceplane-program-moves-into-next-phase/
Physics defines what's possible, not Elon.
The company's vice-president of space systems resiliency Doug Young tells Flightglobal that Northrop will likely press forward with its XS-1 concept through "other ways and means" if it isn't downselected for the programme's $140 million demonstration phase.
“If a responsive system can be built and start to fly with some flight rate for the commercial market, then DOD can come in and buy launches. They don’t need to come in and develop the system.”Young says the vertical takeoff, horizontal landing spaceplane will carry its upper stage rocket much higher than any carrier airplane, meaning it will travel further into space. It will be capable of Mach 10, but won't go into orbit like the Space Shuttle or Boeing's X-37B – making it much cheaper to manufacture and reuse.
Northrop thinks by that time there will be significant demand from the military and commercial sector to begin operations, and the company is not worried about competition from alternative providers.Young says if it – and launch companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance – can truly cut the cost of space access, a strong market will materialise. If not, everybody loses.“There’s going to be enough launches to go around,” he says. "We believe strongly in the programme and have assessed the market. We’ve assessed and know well what the government’s interests and desires are. But who can project where the market will be in four years?
Northrop backs XS-1 spaceplane to join satellite launch marketNorthrop Grumman might be "playing to win" the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's XS-1 programme, but the aerospace firm's interest in a reusable spaceplane for rapidly launching small satellites runs far deeper than any one project or contract.QuoteThe company's vice-president of space systems resiliency Doug Young tells Flightglobal that Northrop will likely press forward with its XS-1 concept through "other ways and means" if it isn't downselected for the programme's $140 million demonstration phase.Quote“If a responsive system can be built and start to fly with some flight rate for the commercial market, then DOD can come in and buy launches. They don’t need to come in and develop the system.”Young says the vertical takeoff, horizontal landing spaceplane will carry its upper stage rocket much higher than any carrier airplane, meaning it will travel further into space. It will be capable of Mach 10, but won't go into orbit like the Space Shuttle or Boeing's X-37B – making it much cheaper to manufacture and reuse.QuoteNorthrop thinks by that time there will be significant demand from the military and commercial sector to begin operations, and the company is not worried about competition from alternative providers.Young says if it – and launch companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance – can truly cut the cost of space access, a strong market will materialise. If not, everybody loses.“There’s going to be enough launches to go around,” he says. "We believe strongly in the programme and have assessed the market. We’ve assessed and know well what the government’s interests and desires are. But who can project where the market will be in four years?https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/northrop-backs-xs-1-spaceplane-to-join-satellite-lau-424210/
Quote from: strangequark on 04/14/2016 04:13 amhttp://spacenews.com/darpa-experimental-spaceplane-program-moves-into-next-phase/10 times in 10 days for a reusable, orbital space plane first stage and they're only getting $140 million to do it? Even Falcon 9 took $90 million. I'd be shocked if this program isn't dead in the water.
Quote from: RotoSequence on 04/14/2016 05:07 amQuote from: strangequark on 04/14/2016 04:13 amhttp://spacenews.com/darpa-experimental-spaceplane-program-moves-into-next-phase/10 times in 10 days for a reusable, orbital space plane first stage and they're only getting $140 million to do it? Even Falcon 9 took $90 million. I'd be shocked if this program isn't dead in the water.Falcon 9 v1.0 takes $390M I believe, there's a NASA document certifying it. But this vehicle shouldn't be compared to Falcon 9, it's more like Falcon 1 (and only the first stage at that), I think $90M is probably similar to what is spent on Falcon 1, and given SpaceX doesn't know what they were doing back then, it looks to me $140M is totally doable.
Of course how many times have major aerospace companies claimed "we'll keep going even if we don't get the contract" only to wind things down quietly when they didn't get the contract?~Jon
Quote from: RotoSequence on 04/14/2016 05:07 amQuote from: strangequark on 04/14/2016 04:13 amhttp://spacenews.com/darpa-experimental-spaceplane-program-moves-into-next-phase/10 times in 10 days for a reusable, orbital space plane first stage and they're only getting $140 million to do it? Even Falcon 9 took $90 million. I'd be shocked if this program isn't dead in the water.XS-1 for a $140M DARPA contribution *is* aggressive, but not completely unrealistic. We're talking about a much smaller stage than F9 (about 1/10th the size), and designing the stage for maximum reusability instead of trying to hit both high performance and reusability (like Falcon 9) could help a lot too. I think Masten could realistically pull it off within that budget if they won. Also, Boeing or NG could do it if they were willing to pony up everything past the $140M DARPA was willing to put in.I'm not sure Boeing or NG believe in the market as much as Masten does, so they might be less willing to pony up anything beyond the minimum cost-sharing required for an OTA type contract.~Jon
Masten's XS-1, if it meets the goals it was developed for, would beat all the other serious microlaunch competitors on price (even assuming those efforts meet their price goals, just to be fair) while also getting several times more payload to orbit.