Pentagon’s Mach 20 Glider Disappears, Whacking ‘Global Strike’ Plans, page 1

Pentagon’s Mach 20 Glider Disappears, Whacking ‘Global Strike’ Plans

The Pentagon’s controversial plan to hit terrorists half a planet away suffered a setback this weekend, after an experimental hypersonic glider disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

In its first flight test. the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) was supposed to be rocket-launched from California to the edge of space. Then the HTV-2 would could screaming back into the atmosphere, maneuvering at twenty times times the speed of sound before landing north of the Kwajalein Atoll, 30 minutes later and 4100 nautical miles away. Thinly wedge-shaped for better lift, equipped with autonomous navigation for more precision, and made of carbon-carbon to withstand the assault of hypersonic flight, the hope was it could fly farther and more accurately at a lower angle of attack than other craft returning to Earth.

At least, that was the idea. Instead, nine minutes after launch, Darpa researchers lost contact with the HTV-2. They’re still trying to figure out why. The agency says the flight test wasn’t a total bust: The craft deployed from its rocket booster, performed some maneuvers in the air, and “achieved controlled flight within the atmosphere at over Mach 20,” Darpa spokesperson Johanna Jones says.

reply to post by havok

I'm glad you got my bit of sarcasm about the WWIII stuff, although in reality, anything is possible, right?

But what you said is exactly what I was thinking... How can the pentagon lose anything? Especially something they just spent so much money on, and made such a big deal out of. This is actually going to make the US look like idiots to other countries, in fact maybe this is was all to entice another country to attack... who knows? I could keep speculating, but I'm hoping more information comes to light.

If this thing in fact went down on this planet on land/water then I'm sure someone would have seen it and reported it as some sort of UFO or something - so maybe we should check UFO reports and such for the past couple days. If no one saw anything then I doubt it has hit this earth, it may be in orbit as I said, or simply gone out of orbit if it went off course and is now flying through space (which once again, just speculation, could have been the point from the beginning). It would be a great way to cover up a space program that the government doesn't want the public knowing about...