DARPA Falcon Phase 2

The Phase 1 DARPA Falcon contractors listed below.

* Air Launch LLC
* Andrews Space Inc.
* Exquadrum Inc.
* KT Engineering,
* Lockheed Martin Corp.,
* Microcosm Inc.,
* Orbital Sciences Corp.,
* Schafer Corp.,
* Space Exploration Technologies,
* Northrop Grumman Corp.,

Have been whittled down to the following Phase 2 contractors:

* Airlaunch LLC (Gary Hudson)
* Lockheed Martin Corp. (The Usual Guys)
* Microcosm Inc. (Chief Engr Shyama Chakroborty)
* Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX - Elon Musk)

"Under the newly awarded agreements, each team will conduct a
10-month phase IIa preliminary design and development effort to
mature their launch vehicle designs. In addition, one of the
companies, Space Exploration Technologies, will conduct an early,
responsive launch demonstration. Next year, DARPA and the Air Force
will select one or more of the phase IIa teams to conduct detailed
design and fabrication of their launch vehicle. Phase IIb will
culminate in 2007 with flight tests to launch a small satellite
to validate vehicle performance. "

"http://www.comspacewatch.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=15074"

The big suprise (to me) is the absence of Orbital Sciences and Boeing.

- Ed Kyle