Posted: Sat, Mar 29, 2014, 9:29 AM ET (1329 GMT)
Boeing this week unveiled its design for an air-launch system after winning a contract from DARPA to develop it. DARPA awarded a $30.6-million contract Monday to Boeing to develop the Air Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) system for launching small satellites; the contracts also includes two options valued at a combined $74 million. Boeing released details of the design on Friday, which involves a rocket deployed from an F-15 aircraft that can place satellites weighing up to 45 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The rocket's unique design features engines mounted near the nose of the vehicle, allowing them to be used throughout the ascent to orbit as propellant tanks behind it are expended. That approach, the company believed, will allow it to lower launch costs by two thirds. A demonstration launch of the ALASA system is planned for fiscal year 2015. Boeing, along with Lockheed Martin and Virgin Galactic, won initial contracts from DARPA in 2012 to study their ALASA concepts.
