Stratolaunch completes first hypersonic test flight for Pentagon
The military this week confirmed that Stratolaunch had successfully completed its first two hypersonic test flights for the Pentagon in December and March.
The hypersonic vehicle named Talon A2 exceeded Mach 5—the threshold for hypersonic speed—in two Pentagon-backed test flights conducted in December 2024 and March 2025, the Defense Department confirmed May 5.
The flights mark the first time since the X-15 program, which ended in 1968, that the U.S. has conducted reusable hypersonic testing.
At the moment the military’s hypersonic test program is really getting its money’s worth from private enterprise. Stratolaunch is doing tests using a reusable vehicle. Rocket Lab is doing suborbital flights using a revised version of its Electron rocket’s first stage. Varda will do hypersonic tests with its capsule when it returns from orbit. And startups Ursa Major and Radian have won contracts to do their own test flights.
For literally decades the military’s hypersonic test program had limped along, barely able to do tests more than once every few years. Then however it was run entirely by the government. Now that the military has stopped trying to be the designer and builder but simply a customer, it is getting what it needs fast and with a great deal of variety.
Ain’t freedom and competition and private enterprise wonderful?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The military this week confirmed that Stratolaunch had successfully completed its first two hypersonic test flights for the Pentagon in December and March.
The hypersonic vehicle named Talon A2 exceeded Mach 5—the threshold for hypersonic speed—in two Pentagon-backed test flights conducted in December 2024 and March 2025, the Defense Department confirmed May 5.
The flights mark the first time since the X-15 program, which ended in 1968, that the U.S. has conducted reusable hypersonic testing.
At the moment the military’s hypersonic test program is really getting its money’s worth from private enterprise. Stratolaunch is doing tests using a reusable vehicle. Rocket Lab is doing suborbital flights using a revised version of its Electron rocket’s first stage. Varda will do hypersonic tests with its capsule when it returns from orbit. And startups Ursa Major and Radian have won contracts to do their own test flights.
For literally decades the military’s hypersonic test program had limped along, barely able to do tests more than once every few years. Then however it was run entirely by the government. Now that the military has stopped trying to be the designer and builder but simply a customer, it is getting what it needs fast and with a great deal of variety.
Ain’t freedom and competition and private enterprise wonderful?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I don’t know how wonderful it really is Mr. Z.
One of the SpaceX News comment makers poor-mouthed it and the business model both
We have far too many small-minded folks that just don’t get infrastructure.
Large jumps will be made when those small companies start to consolidate in some way in order to bring the best of their ideas together.
I can not wait to see that happen.