The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the
advanced applied science arm of the US Department of Defense
(DoD), has selected Lockheed Martin, Virgin Galactic and Boeing
to develop small launch vehicles under the airborne launch
assist space access (ALASA) programme. The resulting systems
developed by the three companies are meant to launch 45kg
(100lb) payloads into orbit for $1 million or less. Further
requirements include use of a "fundamentally unmodified"
aircraft that can be converted from its standard configuration
to launch vehicle within 24h. There are no US-built launch
vehicles dedicated to lifting such small payloads - generally
smallsats, as they are known, hitch rides on larger launchers
with excess capacity. "The ALASA demonstration system will draw
upon emerging technologies to provide increased specific impulse
propellants, stable propellant formulations, hybrid propellant
systems, potential 'infrastructure-free' cryogen production,"
and several other areas of technology, accord