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WASHINGTON — NASA has transferred its X-37 technology demonstration program to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which plans to go ahead with atmospheric drop tests of the prototype space plane next year.<br /><br />NASA spokesman Michael Braukus said Sept. 15 the U.S. space agency would remain involved in the X-37 program, but that DARPA would now be running the show. <br /><br />Braukus had told Space News on Sept. 13 that the X-37 program had been transferred to another U.S. government agency but that NASA could not disclose that agency’s identity for reasons of national security. Braukus said on Sept. 15 that he had since been given permission to identify DARPA as X-37’s new government sponsor.<br /><br />DARPA spokeswoman Jan Walker could not immediately confirm the defense organization’s takeover of the X-37 program. <br /><br />News that lead responsibility for the X-37 program was changing hands was first reported by the Desert News, a newspaper covering Mojave, Calif., and surrounding areas. The newspaper also reported that the X-37 would be carried aloft for next year’s drop tests by the White Knight, the Scaled Composites-built aircraft that carried SpaceShipOne aloft in June for its historic manned suborbital space shot.<br /><br />Braukus said Scaled Composites would be involved in the X-37 approach and landing demonstrations next year, but could not say whether the Mojave-based company would be using the White Knight or some other aircraft. The B-52 aircraft that NASA normally uses for such drop tests would not be used, a decision made by the agency now in charge of the X-37 program, he said. "The cost analysis favored Scaled Composites," Braukus said.<br /><br />Scaled Composites spokeswoman Kay LeFebvre would not confirm the company’s involvement in the planned dropped tests and referred questions about the White Knight’s role in the X-37 program to American Mojave Aerospace Ventures. That company, a Paul Allen and Burt Rutan part