The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has canceled a planned formation-flying satellite demonstration in which it has invested more than $200 million, but a senior agency official said DARPA remains committed to space. In a May 16 interview, Brad Tousley, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, confirmed the decision to terminate the Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated Free-flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange, or System F6, experiment, which had a notional 2015 launch date. Tousley cited a number of factors including the lack of an overall integrator to pull the mission together, and said the project's cancellation is in no way a signal that DARPA, the Pentagon's advanced technology development arm, is shying away from space projects.
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