DARPA Taps SpaceX For Responsive-Launch Demo
By Staff Writer | September 22, 2004
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force gave a $8 million contract to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) that calls for SpaceX to demonstrate a highly responsive, affordable launch capability that can add satellite coverage on demand. The demonstration will take place next summer, with the objective being the cutting of pad-processing time by a factor of two from the standard commercial Falcon I launcher.