Boeing and DARPA are developing the Phantom Express, a spaceplane for launching nanosatellites

Boeing and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are collaborating on an experimental spaceplane, under the XS-1 program. The vehicle will be known as the Phantom Express, and the primary purpose will be for deploying nanosatellites into space. The spaceplane uses a unique approach of using a reusable vehicle to leave the atmosphere of the Earth, and then use an expendable upper stage to actually deploy the satellites into orbit.

A single stage to orbit spaceplane can take off from a conventional runway, and fly all the way to Earth orbit, which takes about fifty times more energy than just leaving the atmosphere of the Earth. The Phantom Express design smartly uses an upper stage to save on the energy costs. After deploying the upper stage, the spaceplane can return to the Earth and land on a conventional runway.

Darryl Davis, president, Boeing Phantom Works says “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.”

Another unique feature of the spaceplane is that it is designed to be highly autonomous. The engine used will be the Aerojet Rocketdyne AR-22 engine, a derivative of the legacy engines used on the Space Shuttles. Boeing and DARPA plan to demonstrate the capabilities of the spaceplane with ten flights in ten days.