U.S. hypersonic glider launched, contact lost

[BanglaBhoot]

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says contact with its experimental hypersonic glider was lost after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast.

The agency says in Twitter postings that its unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 was launched Thursday atop a rocket, successfully separated from the booster and entered the mission's glide phase.
The agency says telemetry was subsequently lost, but released no details..
A similar vehicle was launched last year and returned nine minutes of data before contact was prematurely lost.
The small aircraft is supposed to maneuver through the atmosphere at 13,000 mph before intentionally diving into the ocean.
The U.S. military is trying to develop technology to respond to threats around the globe at speeds of Mach 20 or greater.

U.S. hypersonic glider launched, contact lost - USATODAY.com

 

[RayBan]

^ if this ain't a hoax, then the big bear is at some serious mischief out there buddy. 20 mach u said ?

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Test of hypersonic aircraft fails over Pacific Ocean

A test flight of an experimental aircraft capable of speeding through air at 20 times the speed of sound ended prematurely Thursday morning when the arrowhead-shaped plane stopped sending back real-time data to engineers and scientists who were moderating the mission.

In the test flight, the aircraft, known as the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, was launched at 7:45 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base, located northwest of Santa Barbara, into the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere aboard an eight-story Minotaur IV rocket, made by Orbital Sciences Corp.

After reaching an undisclosed sub-orbital altitude, the aircraft jettisoned from its protective cover atop the rocket, then nose-dived back toward Earth, leveled out and was supposed to glide above the Pacific at 20 times the speed of sound, or Mach 20.

The plan was for the Falcon to speed westward for 30 minutes before plunging into the ocean near Kwajalein Atoll, about 4,000 miles from Vandenberg.

But about 20 minutes into the mission, the Pentagon’s research arm, known as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced on its Twitter account that: “Range assets have lost telemetry.”

It sounds eerily similar to the problems that plagued the Falcon’s first flight, which took place in April 2010. That test flight ended prematurely with only nine minutes of flight time. Engineers went back to the drawing board and were believed to have had things ironed out.

If you have visions of this thing headed back to your house, DARPA sent out another tweet with the reassurance that the Falcon "has an autonomous flight termination capability," which likely means it ditched itself into the Pacific.

Test of hypersonic aircraft fails over Pacific Ocean - latimes.com

 

[Obambam]

Too fast perhaps?

US military loses contact with hypersonic aircraft

The HTV-2 was designed by engineers to travel at 13,000mph (21,000km/h)

The US military lost contact with an unmanned hypersonic test aircraft shortly after its launch, defence officials have said.

The Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) - capable of reaching any target in the world in less than an hour - began a test flight from atop a rocket on Thursday.

Contact was also lost with a similar craft during the first mission.

The HTV-2 is designed to travel at 13,000mph (21,000km/h).

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is funding the HTV-2 programme and overseeing the tests, said the small craft was capable of reaching speeds of Mach 20.

The aircraft took off using a Minotaur IV rocket from Vanderberg Air Force Base in California early on Thursday.

Engineers programmed the HTV-2 to launch from the edge of space, separate from its rocket and crash into the ocean.

No information was available on whether the goals of the mission were achieved.
Re-entering Earth's atmosphere

Darpa said the HTV-2 would be subject to temperatures in excess of 3,500F (2,000C) if it reached its intended speed during its test flight.

The agency had previously said the craft would re-enter the earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

The first test flight of a HTV-2 ended with the craft crashing into the Pacific after the military lost contact with the glider nine minutes into the flight.

But the first glider's flight still managed to return 139 seconds of aerodynamic data at speeds between 17 and 22 times the speed of sound, DARPA said.

The HTV-2 programme "informs policy, acquisition, and operations decisions for future Department of Defense Conventional Prompt Global Strike programmes", Darpa said on its website.

At HTV-2 speeds, flight time between New York City and Los Angeles, which are roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 km) apart, would be less than 12 minutes.

The Atlantis shuttle, launched in July, travelled around Earth's orbit at a similar speed of about 17,500mph (28,000kp/h).

BBC News - US military loses contact with hypersonic aircraft

 

[SpArK]

Superfast plane crashes in Pacific Ocean

 

[lover_of_Ahlulbayt]

prably aliens disabled the electronics of this glider and hence it crashed.

Aliens and UFOs DO NOT want weaponization of space by any of the countries from Earth!

 

[Don Jaguar]

prably aliens disabled the electronics of this glider and hence it crashed.

Aliens and UFOs DO NOT want weaponization of space by any of the countries from Earth!

No No No, it is done by pakistani taliban and the government of pakistan and ISI helped them to crash it down!!!

 

[Avisheik]

Military venture again?? I would rather have america spending this money on developing its space program since they stopped space shuttle program.

 

[Indian Tiger]

There is no success with out failure, US will comeback strongly obviously the world know.

 

[anon45]

If this doesnt kill the program it will only make it stronger.

 

[Chogy]

Exactly. I'd rather see attempts that fail, than no attempts at all. How else can we progress? There are scientific payoffs that will pay dividends outside of the military.

 

[Obambam]

Exactly. I'd rather see attempts that fail, than no attempts at all. How else can we progress? There are scientific payoffs that will pay dividends outside of the military.

Failure is the mother of success.

 

[gambit]

Exactly. I'd rather see attempts that fail, than no attempts at all. How else can we progress? There are scientific payoffs that will pay dividends outside of the military.

It is America's secondary duty to attempt and fail so those countries that cannot invent and innovate can laugh at America as they use another American technology to do so...

 

[Zeeshan360]

OMG . 20 machs :O
That's just insane speed .

 

[Chogy]

The fastest humans ever, in all of history, happened in 1969 with Apollo 10.

The fastest manned craft ever was Apollo 10 on its return from orbiting the moon at 24791 mph on May 26th, 1969. The exceeded Mach 37!

A lot of records were captured by Apollo, like fastest human, most "remote" human, etc. I don't know who it is, but one of the Apollo command module pilots became the most remote, farthest-traveled human during his solo orbits of the moon while the other two crew were on the surface. Talk about lonely!