Update 12:29pET- DARPA says it could not regain contact with HTV2 but the hypersonic wedge can terminate its flight autonomously.
why don't they put their energy into a car that gets 100+ miles per gallon? that would impress me! 
The HTV-2 vehicle was expected to reach suborbital space, then re-enter Earth's atmosphere and glide at hypersonic speed to demonstrate controllable flight at velocities of around Mach 20, which is about 13,000 mph. At that speed, more than 20 times the speed of sound, a vehicle could fly from New York City to Los Angeles in 12 minutes, DARPA officials said.
