The Chip-Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) program created ultra-miniaturized, low-power, atomic time and frequency reference units. 

The development of CSAC enabled ultra-miniaturized and ultra-low power atomic clocks for high-security Ultra High Frequency (UHF) communication and jam-resistant GPS receivers. The use of CSAC technology can greatly improve the mobility and robustness of any military system or platform with sophisticated UHF communication and/or navigation requirements.

The LUKE arm was developed by inventor Dean Kamen and his colleagues at DEKA Research & Development Corp. as part of DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program with additional funding from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. 

Launched in 2006, DARPA’s program began with a radical goal: develop an advanced electromechanical prosthetic upper limb with near-natural control that would dramatically enhance independence and quality of life for amputees. 

Boosted into geosynchronous orbit on June 21, 2006 aboard a Delta II rocket, the Microsatellite Technology Experiment (MiTEx) technology demonstration investigated and demonstrated advanced high-payoff technologies from a variety of potential candidates, including lightweight power and propulsion systems, avionics, structures, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, advanced communications, and on-orbit software environments.

In an in-air demonstration in 2007, DARPA teamed up with NASA to show that high-performance aircraft can easily perform automated refueling from conventional tankers. 

The goal of the Orbital Express Space Operations Architecture program was to validate the technical feasibility of robotic, autonomous on-orbit refueling and reconfiguration of satellites to support a broad range of future U.S. national security and commercial space programs. 

Refueling satellites would enable them to frequently maneuver to improve coverage, improve survivability, as well as extend satellite lifetime. Electronics upgrades on-orbit would provide regular performance improvements and dramatically reduce the time to deploy new technology.

Building on the success of the 2004 and 2005 Grand Challenges, the DARPA Urban Challenge required teams to build an autonomous vehicle capable of driving in traffic, performing complex maneuvers such as merging, passing, parking, and negotiating intersections. 

As the day wore on, it became apparent to all that this race was going to have finishers. At 1:43 pm, Boss, the entry of the Carnegie Mellon Team, Tartan Racing, crossed the finish line first with a run time of just over four hours.

With the goal of developing analysis techniques for massive data sets, DARPA rolled out the Topological Data Analysis (TDA) program, which ran from 2004 to 2008. 

Like many other programs, this one spawned a commercial firm, in this case a software firm that remained in business at the posting of this timeline in 2018.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet, DARPA announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that explored the roles that the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems. 

The Challenge called for competitors to be the first to submit the locations of ten moored, eight-foot, red weather balloons at 10 fixed and readily visible locations in the continental United States. 

Leveraging past DARPA developments in laser-based versions of RADAR—known as LIDAR, short for light detection and ranging—the High-Altitude LIDAR Operations Experiment (HALOE) provided unprecedented access to high-resolution 3-D geospatial data. First deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, HALOE was one of several DARPA advances directly supporting the warfighter that earned the Agency the Joint Meritorious Unit Award from the Secretary of Defense in 2012.

DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) program was a multiyear research and development effort to increase the technical knowledge base and advance critical technologies to make long-duration hypersonic flight a reality. 

Falcon HTV-2 is an unmanned, rocket-launched, maneuverable aircraft that glides through the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly fast speeds—Mach 20 (approximately 13,000 miles per hour). 

At HTV-2 speeds, flight time between New York City and Los Angeles would be less than 12 minutes.