Pentagon’s Mach 20 Missile Ready for Ultimate Test

The Pentagon has been working for nearly a decade on an audacious plan to strike anywhere on the planet in less than an hour. Wednesday could prove to be the do-or-die moment for that plan. At approximately 7 a.m. PDT, a three-stage Minotaur IV Lite rocket is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will puncture the atmosphere, and then release an experimental aircraft. That aircraft, known as the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, will then come hurtling back to Earth at nearly 20 times the speed of sound, splashing down near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 4,100 miles away. Total flight time: about 30 minutes. That is, if the flight goes as planned. The first HTV-2, launched by Pentagon bleeding-edge research arm Darpa in April of 2010, disappeared over the Pacific after just nine minutes of flight. The vehicle was never recovered.

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I guess that we can only hope that some of the ground testing this thing has now undergone will have payed off.

Just another step in technology that will be used as a steppeing stone for space travel.

Very good find

Originally posted by iforget

The first HTV-2, launched by Pentagon bleeding-edge research arm Darpa in April of 2010, disappeared over the Pacific after just nine minutes of flight. The vehicle was never recovered.

That alien intervention must be sucking right about now.

Those DARPA guys sure are a crafty lot.

Give it any bets it's that white object that looks like a star. I took a picture and looks like a man standing in the middle of the thing. I'll post it later. You can just see a shadow of person. Thats all. Looks cool. But makes ya wonder.

Its ultimate test will be surviving the upcoming budget cuts.