Air Force's Falcon Hypersonic Glider disappears

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Air Force's Falcon Hypersonic Glider Disappears Mysteriously
The Air Force's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2—designed to attack global targets at Mach 20—has disappeared nine minutes into its first test flight, just after separating from its booster. Contact was lost, and it hasn't been found yet.

The Falcon was supposed to splash down in the Pacific Ocean after a 30-minute, 4,100-nautical-mile test flight. Not to be confused with the unmanned X-37B space shuttle—which launched on April 22—the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 blasted off last week from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Minotaur IV rocket.

gizmodo.com...

I find this rather amusing.

Thanks for bringing it to light.

Next time, they should steer clear of the HARP waves.

I think it was B-
Nazi UFOs.

Disappeared in the Pacific, you say?

Must have been Godzilla.

I guess that is a piloted vehicle..anyone know? At those speeds I doubt parachuting is an option.

So one ship goes off 'somewhere', and the other gets 'lost'. I smell something funny. There's too many military sats and everything else watching this planet to have something like that 'lost'. Not to mention ships, support craft, etc and etc.

hmmmmmmmmmmm

Edited: Or the hypersonic glider has done a 'Farscape' and it was either intentional or a real mistake.

[edit on 30-4-2010 by wylekat]

Mach 20?! No wonder they lost it... I can't believe we're even testing something that can travel that fast. Does anyone know the technology behind this thing?

The best part of the article on Gizmodo are the comments from other people!

"It's so stealth, WE can't even find it!"

Mach 20??!! Well... that's WAY past 88 MPH and since it's the Air Force I bet they have a flux capacitor AND are able to generate 1.21 gigawatts. And I think we ALL knows what happens when you have a flux capacitor generating 1.21 gigawatts at 88 MPH....

They shouldn't have gone to Ludicrous Speed so early...

I say bottom of the sea, or busted apart, or both. Imagine the forces if the thing got somehow sideways at those speeds. Controlling it would be impossible. The forces on the materials would be incalculable.

So the X37, and now this one have both just disappeared?

The Country is either in on this, and it is not disappeared, or they should be extremely alarmed and preparing for the worst!

NASA and now Air Force? Our two newest and most advanced space planes? Two potentially game-changing weapons and space platforms? Somebody doesn't want us getting these things up there! I am not saying aliens, although it is possible, but it could be Russia, China, or moles within these organizations.

Something is extremely fishy, and just from budget money and fiscal responsibility standpoint this should be front page news! Add in the potential sabotage, or potential that somebody already has superior technology capable of making these things fail, and it should really, really be front page news!!

Originally posted by samureyed
Mach 20?! No wonder they lost it... I can't believe we're even testing something that can travel that fast. Does anyone know the technology behind this thing?

It's Hypersonics,
AEDC reaches major milestone with hypersonic engine testing
A fact sheet from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA) says the vehicle was to be accelerated into the upper atmosphere, separate from its booster and glide across the Pacific at 13,000 mph.

2. Do the HTV-2 vehicles have onboard propulsion or are they unpowered?

HTV-2 is an unmanned, rocket-launched maneuverable hypersonic air vehicle (with no on-board propulsion system) that flies through the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly fast speeds – Mach 20 and above.

DARPA Falcon HTV-2 Hypersonic Vehicle to Launch from Vandenberg on Tuesday - DARPA FACT SHEET


More on Hypersonics here:"Hypersonic" Programs from HIFiRE, DARPA, AEDC are in Full Swing when the Shuttle Program is shutt


Zelong.

I guess Doc Brown was wrong. The flux capacitor doesn't work at 88 mph; however, it does work at mach 20.

To misquote the inestimable Noel Coward; To lose one experimental aircraft may be considered bad luck, but to lose two is simply careless.

Originally posted by BlackProjects
I guess that is a piloted vehicle..anyone know? At those speeds I doubt parachuting is an option.

Not manned.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
So the X37, and now this one have both just disappeared?

The X-37B is not missing. They just aren't telling you anything about the mission.

Hmmm, I asked about this in another thread - and it doesn't say if the Hypersonic was lost - it just says it lost communications .... most reports are talking in the past ie: it was supposed to do land ... it was meant to fly ... nowhere I am finding that it landed anywhere they want anyone to know about - maybe its off to Mars early

Source: spacevidcast.com
www.spacevidcast.com...

The Minotaur IV has seen some delays. It was discovered that a gas generator in the 3rd stage of the rocket would produce unintended thrust after the motor burned out. Engineers had to go back and design a new diffuser to reduce that unintended thrust, which then delayed the debut of the rocket itself. Projects such as the Space Based Space Surveillance Satellite or SBSS have been delayed since October of last year due to the Minotaur IV issues. This setback has caused a cascading delay for military satellite deployment. Some satellites have been moved to other launch vehicles such as the Delta II while others have had to wait for the Minotaur IV configuration to be fixed. Now that the Air Force and Orbital have been able to successfully launch the Minotaur IV, it is expected that they will be able to catch up on that backlog.

While the launch itself was a success, the payload, not so much. Aboard the Minotaur IV Light was DARPA’s Hypersonic test vehicle. The payload was known as the Falcon HTV-2a Glide Vehicle and is designed to re-enter the atmosphere and fly across the Pacific Ocean at speeds of around 13,000 miles per hour, or 20,000 kilometers per hour. The HTV was supposed to test technologies that could eventually be employed by a system capable of prompt global response missions. Well, that was the plan at least.

The vehicle was released from the Minotaur’s third stage and it looks like Orbital’s rocket did deliver the HTV glide vehicle and separate as planned, but something went wrong. The craft was supposed to try out its aerodynamic control systems, do a bunch of turns to burn off some energy and then glide over the Pacific Ocean at that awesome 13,000 miles per hour before splashing down in the sea near the US Army’s Regan Test Site. Unfortunately, Tracking systems lost contact with the Falcon HTV-2a around 9 minutes after liftoff. DARPA has not yet said if any of the HTVs mission objectives were completed before communications with the craft were lost. Hehe, oops.

Smigs

Hypersonic flight is extremely difficult, or we would have perfected it already. There have been many test failures over the years. One failed when the rocket used to accellerate the vehicle to supersonic speeds failed, one failed when there was a problem with the fuel, etc. This was the first flight, so I would have been shocked if everything went perfectly.

NASA can't even launch a balloon in Australia, without it crashing, nevermind anything that travels faster than that. LOL. Although they could use it as a weapon, cause it did takeout a parked 4x4.

the chineese stole it,

thats what happens when you try and cut back on costs
and use chineese made knock off parts.

cost cuts shame

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Mach 20 is way over escape velocity... So if they experienced a slight loss of control, it might have shot off into space... Good luck finding it!

I'm calling disinformation on this one. The test probably went smoothly but they just want to create the appearance that things aren't going right to throw off anyone *cough*China*cough* who might be trying to duplicate the technology.

It could also be a way for them to test security or someone they are spying on themselves. For example, USA says it isn't working, it is easier for our counter intelligence to pick up chatter that it actually did work, allowing us to narrow in on the intelligence leak, etc. You get the idea.

Either that, or the thing friggin' melted into a molten ball of burning metal and dropped like a rock into the ocean and sank to the bottom like a whistle.

[edit on 20-5-2010 by harrytuttle]