Northrop Grumman [NOC] is developing a preliminary design and flight demonstration plan for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Experimental Spaceplane XS-1 program, according to a company statement. Northrop Grumman is working with Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic on the program. XS-1 has a reusable booster that, when coupled with an expendable upper stage, provides affordable, available and responsive space lift for 3,000-pound class spacecraft into low earth orbit (LEO). Reusable boosters with aircraft-like operations provide a breakthrough in…
