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  The Falcon HTV-2 goes for Mach 20-ishAug 11, 2011 6:21 AM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:I noticed an article today saying that the US military organization DARPA ("Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency"--not exactly the best title or acronym this nation has devised :p), after scrubbing a flight Wednesday due to bad weather, will be trying again on Thursday to launch the second test flight of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, or "HTV-2" for short. "Hypersonic" tends to mean faster than Mach 5 (Mach 1 being the speed of sound, 768 mph (1,236 kph)), and the HTV-2 is actually supposed to reach the rather ridiculous speed of "Mach 20 (approximately 13,000 miles per hour)" (which at normal temperature and pressure would be Mach 17, actually, so I wonder if they're taking a higher altitude into consideration, where the speed of sound would be less due to lower temperature, etc...or if they just like round numbers :p); the reason given for having a vehicle capable of that speed is to be able to get anywhere on Earth in under an hour--pretty mind-boggling to think about.
 
The Falcon definitely isn't a normal-looking craft, and it doesn't fly in any sort of ordinary way. First, it's launched in the nose of a rocket, which takes it to just below Earth orbit altitude before releasing it, as depicted in this simulated rendering from DARPA:
 
Image
image by DARPA (source)
 
Once on its own, the Falcon re-enters the atmosphere, diving toward its destination:
 
Image
image by DARPA (source)
 
Its first test flight, in April of last year, did not go well: contact with the craft was lost after nine minutes, and it ditched into the ocean. These flights are supposed to go along a route something like this, I think (this chart is from last year):
 
Image
image by DARPA (source)
 
This second test flight, for instance, is supposed to last for about half an hour, ending with the Falcon splashing down in the Pacific, 6,400 km away from its launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. You can check out an updated overview, complete with rather high-resolution computer generated videos of each stage of the flight (in non-streaming wmv format), here on DARPA's site. One thing I found interesting about the videos was that they show how the Falcon's maneuvering jets are configured: they fire sort of crosswise across the back of the craft.
 
 
 
 
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