Hypersonic Glider Lost over Pacific
11 Aug 2011
By Ward Carroll
USA Today is reporting that DARPA lost contact with its unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 during a test flight launched earlier today.
The Falcon is an unmanned craft that uses a rocket booster to accelerate before gliding at hypersonic speeds of up to Mach 22 (or about 13,000 mph) through the Earth's atmosphere. The goal of the project is to eventually enable the US military to strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour.
The Falcon launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base and successfully separated from the booster and entered the mission's glide phase when telemetry was lost.
DARPA released no further details.
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