Another company enters the military’s hypersonic test market
UP Aerospace today announced the successful launch of its suborbital small Spyder rocket, designed expressly for hypersonic flight testing.
The maiden flight took place at 7:00 AM MST at Launch Complex 36 [at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico], marking a new era in hypersonic mission capabilities. The mission reached the threshold of hypersonic speeds similar to the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket missions that have been operational for 20 years.
In the U.S. the military now can do hypersonic flight tests using this small rocket, Stratolaunch’s giant Roc plane and Talon-A flight vehicle, Rocket Lab’s Haste reconfiguration of its Electron rocket, and Varda’s orbital capsules on their return from space. In addition there is at least one other startup, Radian, that hopes to build a space plane for hypersonic testing as well.
I also expect this testing to result in some new technologies for both commercial aircraft as well as rockets.
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
UP Aerospace today announced the successful launch of its suborbital small Spyder rocket, designed expressly for hypersonic flight testing.
The maiden flight took place at 7:00 AM MST at Launch Complex 36 [at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico], marking a new era in hypersonic mission capabilities. The mission reached the threshold of hypersonic speeds similar to the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft rocket missions that have been operational for 20 years.
In the U.S. the military now can do hypersonic flight tests using this small rocket, Stratolaunch’s giant Roc plane and Talon-A flight vehicle, Rocket Lab’s Haste reconfiguration of its Electron rocket, and Varda’s orbital capsules on their return from space. In addition there is at least one other startup, Radian, that hopes to build a space plane for hypersonic testing as well.
I also expect this testing to result in some new technologies for both commercial aircraft as well as rockets.
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
There’s lots of talk about Iran launching hypersonic missiles at Israel. Does anyone here have any info if that is possible or just the ramblings of ignorant reporters who are conflating “ballistic” with “hypersonic?”
Gary,
My money would be on reportorial ignorance but I don’t think either of us would find many takers for the other side of that bet. The general idiocy of “journalists” is a cat that has long since escaped its bag.
Pretty much all ballistic war missiles of more than quite modest range are hypersonic, in the narrow sense of traveling at or above Mach 5 during some part of their parabolic trajectories. The modern use of “hypersonic” also implies ability to maneuver, endoatmospherically, at hypersonic velocities. That is something Iran’s missiles do not do.