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TechnologyUnited States of America

Stratolaunch hails test of hypersonic vehicle

March 10, 2024

The US company says it successfully completed the first powered flight of its Talon-A hypersonic vehicle, landing it safely in water. It did not give exact details but said speeds were "approaching Mach 5."

https://p.dw.com/p/4dLvK
December 3, 2023, Mojave, California, USA: Stratolaunch takes off for the first time with a live Talon hypersonic rocket engine on Tuesday from Mojave Air & Space Port.
The TA-1 vehicle (seen here mounted in the middle of the Roc carrier's wings) was tested off the Californian coast, Stratolaunch said on SaturdayImage: Gene Blevins/ZUMAPRESS/picture alliance

Private company Stratolaunch said late on Saturday that it tested its Talon-A hypersonic vehicle successfully, publishing a short video of its release and the start of its flight. 

"Today was a great day for the Stratolaunch team. I am extremely proud of their perserverance to reach this point," company President Zachary Krevor said in the statement. 

The company said the primary targets of Saturday's flight had been "accomplishing safe air-launch release of the TA-1 vehicle, engine ignition, acceleration, sustained climb in altitude, and a controlled water landing." 

It released a video showing the first few seconds of the test off the coast of California. The massive six-engined twin-fuselaged carrier Roc released the Talon from the mounting in the middle of its wing, it dropped a short distance before the engine fired and it flew ahead.

Hypersonic weapons and defenses in development

The flight concluded with a controlled landing in water. Though the TA-1 is not reusable, the company said new models designed for reuse after runway landings are in development.

The Stratolaunch plane is pushed out of the hanger for the first time in the Mojave Desert, California on May 31, 2017.
Stratolaunch operates in the Mojave desert in California, this image is from its 2017 release of its launch carrierImage: April Keller/AFP

"While I can't share the specific altitude and speed TA-1 reached," Krevin said, "we reached high supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5 and a great amount of data at an incredible value to our customers." 

Defense contractors in several countries are hoping to capitalize on the shift both towards hypersonic weapons and also to the development of new systems designed to detect and defend against them. 

Stratolaunch said it hoped the TA-1 vehicle's development would be complete this year and noted work had begun on two newer models. 

Hypersonic weapons tend to be defined as ones that travel in Earth's upper atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5, equivalent to roughly 1.7 kilometers or just over 1 mile per second). 

msh/wd (AP, Reuters)