{"id":18145,"date":"2019-02-12T19:53:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T11:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/darpa-is-zeroing-in-on-launch-challenge\/"},"modified":"2019-02-12T19:53:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T11:53:43","slug":"darpa-is-zeroing-in-on-launch-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/darpa-is-zeroing-in-on-launch-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"DARPA is zeroing in on Launch Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Multiple
An artist\u2019s conception shows rockets lifting off from an oceanside launch complex. (DARPA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 The Pentagon\u2019s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration are winnowing down 18 pre-qualified teams for the DARPA Launch Challenge, a competition with a $10 million grand prize that\u2019s aimed at boosting America\u2019s rapid-response launch capabilities.<\/p>\n

The challenge, modeled after the autonomous-vehicle races that DARPA sponsored more than a decade ago, will require teams to send payloads into orbit at short notice. The qualified teams won\u2019t know where they\u2019re supposed to launch from until about a month before the scheduled launch, and they won\u2019t get their payload and orbital specifications until two weeks in advance.<\/p>\n

To earn the $10 million prize, the winning team will have to launch not just once, but twice within roughly two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

The identities of the teams that have been cleared for the contest can\u2019t be revealed quite yet, said Todd Master, program manager for the challenge at DARPA\u2019s Tactical Technology Office. He explained that the recent government shutdown forced a delay in the licensing process at the FAA\u2019s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, also known by the acronym AST.<\/p>\n

Teams were originally supposed to win acceptance of an FAA license application by Feb. 1, but that part of the timeline has now been reset for March 1, Master told GeekWire today at the Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington. The list of qualified teams will be announced this spring, he said.<\/p>\n

Master said about 55 teams applied to compete in the wake of the DARPA Launch Challenge\u2019s official kickoff last April, and the field was trimmed down to 18 last November. Now DARPA and AST are working together to take a close look at the team\u2019s plans and timelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAST\u2019s focus is more about safety, ours is more about schedules and readiness,\u201d Master said.<\/p>\n

Master couldn\u2019t yet say whether any of the teams will be ready to launch rockets by the time the contest takes place, late this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is aspirational at this point, but I think if you look at what\u2019s happening in the small-launch industry, there\u2019s a lot of momentum right now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think you\u2019re going to see a different field next year than you see today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teams that qualify for the challenge will get $400,000 each to continue developing their launch vehicles. When the time comes, DARPA will provide the mystery payloads for launch, and choose the launch venue from a list of nine sites scattered across the country.<\/p>\n

\"DARPA
DARPA has listed five vertical-launch sites and four horizontal-launch sites on its menu for the DARPA Launch Challenge. Click on the image for a larger version. (DARPA Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019ll be up to the teams to get their rockets to the right place in time for launch, and deliver the payload to the orbit that DARPA specifies. The teams that succeed in the first launch will win $2 million each. They\u2019ll also become eligible to win up to $10 million if they succeed in their second launch, under similar rapid-response conditions.<\/p>\n

If more than one team pulls off both launches successfully, the winner will be chosen on the basis of a performance ranking. A second-place team would get $9 million, and a third-place team would get $8 million.<\/p>\n

All these incentives are designed to stimulate technological innovation in a field that the Pentagon calls \u201cresponsive space\u201d \u2014 that is, the ability to send up quick replacements for satellites that have gone out of service due to an unforeseen malfunction or an attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see, at DARPA, the ability to put things into space quickly, on an on-demand basis, as a critical national capability,\u201d Master said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s one that we don\u2019t have today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows rockets lifting off from an oceanside launch complex. (DARPA Illustration) WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 The Pentagon\u2019s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration are winnowing down 18 pre-qualified teams for the DARPA Launch Challenge, a competition with a $10 million grand prize that\u2019s aimed at boosting America\u2019s rapid-response launch capabilities. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1504,4851,5056],"class_list":["post-18145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-darpa","tag-darpa-launch-challenge","tag-incentives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}