A major milestone for a secretive hypersonic spaceplane the military could one day use to launch satellites at short notice have been completed. The reusable Phantom Express spaceplane will take off vertically and land horizontally, and is being built by Boeing as part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Experimental Spaceplane program, and its engines have now passed a key test. It is hoped it will play a crucial role in future space warfare, allowing military bosses to launch satellites and replace damaged ones within hours. The reusable Phantom Express spaceplane will take off vertically and land horizontally, and is being built by Boeing as part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Experimental Spaceplane program. The Pentagon's research arm now test-fired the new rocket engine 10 times in as many days, a critical step toward a space plane that can put satellites in orbit on a daily basis, project officials said.

A major milestone for a secretive hypersonic spaceplane the military could one day use to launch satellites at short notice have been completed. The reusable Phantom Express spaceplane will take off vertically and land horizontally, and is being built by Boeing as part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Experimental Spaceplane program, and its engines have now passed a key test. It is hoped it will play a crucial role in future space warfare, allowing military bosses to launch satellites and replace damaged ones within hours. The reusable Phantom Express spaceplane will take off vertically and land horizontally, and is being built by Boeing as part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Experimental Spaceplane program. The Pentagon's research arm now test-fired the new rocket engine 10 times in as many days, a critical step toward a space plane that can put satellites in orbit on a daily basis, project officials said.

The first rocket engines for a secretive hypersonic spaceplane the military could one day use to launch satellites at short notice have been completed. The reusable Phantom Express spaceplane will take off vertically and land horizontally, and is being built by Boeing as part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Experimental Spaceplane program. It is hoped it will play a crucial role in future space warfare, allowing military bosses to launch satellites and replace damaged ones within hours. The reusable Phantom Express spaceplane will take off vertically and land horizontally, and is being built by Boeing as part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Experimental Spaceplane program. The vehicle will be equipped with an expendable second stage capable of placing up to 3,000 pounds (1,361 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit.