
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has picked Boeing [BA] over two other companies to design, build and test an unmanned, reusable spaceplane that could deploy small satellites, DARPA and Boeing announced May 24.Boeing edged out competitors Masten Space Systems and Northrop Grumman [NOC] to become the prime contractor for the Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program.Boeing’s Phantom Express will be powered by the Aerojet Rocketdyne [AJRD] AR-22 engine, a version of the legacy Space Shuttle main engine. Boeing was…