USA Will Launch Satellite Without Rocket: ALASA Concept by Darpa

[Basel]

If there's another similar thread please merge it with the same. @Manticore @Horus @waz

@gambit @Penguin please discuss and share your opinion on topic.

 

[Penguin]

General info
Airborne Launch Assist Space Access - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.darpa.mil/program/airborne-launch-assist-space-access

• Air-launching satellites was first seriously considered during the 1950s and 1960s, but small payloads in the 100-pound class at the time did not have effective capabilities, so the method was overlooked.
  
• The first air-launched rocket to put a satellite into orbit was the Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus, which did it on 13 June 1990
• Airborne Launch Assist Space Access, or DARPA ALASA is a canceled program of the US defense technology agency DARPA "designed to produce a rocket capable of launching a 100-pound satellite into low Earth orbit for less than $1 million."
  
• The program was conceived, then announced in 2011, and funded development work began in 2012. The project was terminated in late 2015.

Look like its building on ASAT technology: same launch method, different payloadvehicle.
ASM-135 ASAT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Summary:

• In the late 1950s, the US began development of anti-satellite weapons.
• After the Soviet Union demonstrated an operational co-orbital anti-satellite system, in 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter directed the USAF to develop and deploy a new anti-satellite system.
  
• In 1978, the USAF started a new program initially designated the Prototype Miniature Air-Launched Segment (PMALS)
• In 1979, the USAF issued a contract to LTV Aerospace to begin work on the ALMV.
• The LTV Aerospace design featured a multi-stage missile with an infrared homing kinetic energy warhead
• The ASM-135 was designed to be launched from an F-15A in a supersonic zoom climb.
• A modified Boeing AGM-69 SRAM missile with a Lockheed Propulsion Company LPC-415 solid propellant two pulse rocket engine was used as the first stage
• The LTV Aerospace Altair 3 was used as the second stage
• LTV Aerospace also provided the third stage for the ASM-135 ASAT. This stage was called Miniature Homing Vehicle (MHV) interceptor.
• On 21 December 1982, an F-15A was used to perform the first captive carry ASM-135 test flight
• On 20 August 1985 President Ronald Reagan authorized a test against a satellite.
• On 13 September 1985, Maj. Wilbert D. "Doug" Pearson, flying the "Celestial Eagle" F-15A 76-0084 launched an ASM-135 ASAT about 200 miles (322 km) west of Vandenberg Air Force Base and destroyed the Solwind P78-1 satellite flying at an altitude of 345 miles (555 km).
• 15 ASM-135 ASAT missiles were produced and 5 missiles were flight tested
• In 1988, the Reagan Administration canceled the ASM-135 program because of technical problems, testing delays, and significant cost growth

U.S. ASM-135 ASAT missile


Reminds me of F-15 Eagle launching the ASM-135 during test, destroying the Solwind P78-1 satellite.

 

[Penguin]

Soviet anti-satellite ASAT missile Kontakt

Through a glass, darkly: Chinese, American, and Russian anti-satellite testing in space
The Space Review: Through a glass, darkly: Chinese, American, and Russian anti-satellite testing in space (page 2)

Bold Orion missile and B-47 aircraft.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

DRDO should be modeled on DARPA. Instead of one organization that develops and builds everything from Tanks to missiles and submarines, it should be a nodal agency supporting an ecosystem of private players, Guess that's how it is moving but we need to speed it up.