To watch
Stratolanch has published a new video documenting the completion of its second hypersonic flight and the complete recovery of its autonomous Talon-A2 vehicle, showing the capacities of this elegant reusable hypersonic aircraft.
This successful follow-up mission, recently undertaken on March 24 of this year, follows following the first hypersonic flight and the recovery of the track of the Talon-A2 vehicle of the Talon-A2. “Rock.”
When it is positioned and deployed at the altitude of more than 20,000 feet, the hypersonic marvel in the shape of a dart fell from the central pylon of Roc before its Hadley Ursa Major rocket engine to propel it to Mach 5 and beyond.
“With the data collected from this second flight, we are able to apply the lessons learned to improve the strength and performance of Talon-A vehicles,” said Dr. Zachary Krevor, president and chief executive officer of Stratolunch in a press release. “While the team must finish its examination of the data in the Flight two, the first flight examination confirmed the robustness of the Talon-A design while demonstrating the possibility of respecting the entire range of performance capacities desired by our customers.”
After a climb to controlled altitude, the heel-A2 slipped to the ground for a touchdown and a silky payload recovery at the base of the Vandenberg Force Vandenberg in California, as shown by this video linking the vision of Stratolunch at the end of the 1950s of the American air force and NASA.
The flights of December and March fulfilled the useful expenses and the experiences of the Ministry of Defense. These fascinating missions mark the first return of America to reusable hypersonic flight tests since the end of this X-15 program inhabited in 1968.
Stratolanch is a revolutionary air launch company founded in 2011 by the late co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen. Cerberus Capital Management officially bought Stratolanch in 2018, transferring its headquarters from Seattle, Washington to Mohave Air and Space Port in California by emphasizing the evolution of hyperspatial hyperspatial crafts in world and operational class.
A second launch platform is currently being developed using a Boeing 747-400 Boeing formerly belonging to the Virgin orbit now disappeared and now renamed “Spirit of Mojave”. This updated plane will provide a compact carrier more practical than the powerful “rock” for future flights and tests for the next generation of StratoLanch vehicles nicknamed the heel-A3, which should be ready to fly at the end of 2025.
Stratolanch had previously tested the Talon-A1 single-use prototype on March 9, 2024, which was not equipped with a landing train and carried out a perfect ocean splash.
