Update: Defense Company Loses Contact With Hypersonic Jet
- Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:04pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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LOS ANGELES (The Blaze/AP) — Yesterday, we brought you the story of the unmanned hypersonic glider developed for U.S. defense research with the potential for super-fast global strike capability. It was launched atop a rocket early Thursday. But now, we learn that the defense company behind the plane has lost contact with it.
(Read our original story and watch the videos)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency confirmed it is no longer in contact with the glider. There was no immediate information on how much of the mission’s goals were achieved.
It was the second of two planned flights of a Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2. Contact was also lost during the first mission.
The small craft is part of a U.S. military initiative to develop technology to respond to threats at 20 times the speed of sound or greater, reaching any part of the globe in an hour.
The HTV-2 is designed to be launched to the edge of space, separate from its booster and maneuver through the atmosphere at 13,000 mph before intentionally crashing into the ocean.
DARPA used Twitter to announce the launch and status of the flight.
The agency said the launch of the Minotaur 4 rocket was successful and separation was confirmed. It next reported that telemetry had been lost.
No further details were immediately reported. There was no immediate response to an email request to DARPA for information on the mission.
The HTV-2 is intended to put theory, simulations and wind tunnel experience to the test in real flight conditions at speeds producing temperatures in the thousands of degrees and requiring extremely fast control systems, according to DARPA.
The first HTV-2 was launched on April 22, 2010. It returned nine minutes of data, including 139 seconds of aerodynamic data at speeds between 17 and 22 times the speed of sound, DARPA said.
That craft detected an anomaly, aborted its flight and plunged into the ocean, the agency said.
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Comments (123)
RVing-Patriot
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:35pmToo bad. I can think of a few people it could drop on.
Report Post »smithclar3nc3
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:51pmDid it ever really exist because all the images they have shown of it were computer generated images.
Report Post »ScreaminEagle
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:52pmIt’s in my back yard. Who do I sue for damages?
Report Post »DarkFire
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 2:35pmtest flight = delivering it to china, it is not missing it is theirs, they bought it, they paid for it, and now they will use it aginst us!
Report Post »jnobfan
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 2:39pmIts a waste of time. The first shots in the next major war will be shot in space. If we knockout their GPS they surrender – if they knockout ours we surrender. Oh I forgot we don’t have a space program anymore. Sorry never mind
Report Post »PatriotComeLately
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 2:56pmChinese satellite with tractor beam captured it so that they can reverse engineer
Report Post »tcharleyd
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 3:05pmWouldnt want to show too many pictures, you do have to protect your technology after all
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 3:53pmIt never existed. were there even any real life images of it? even in hanger? i didn’t find any… only CGI images.
Report Post »dr_funk
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 4:52pmsmithclar3nc3, what the hell are they gonna do, send a second rocket up with a cameraman on board? Are you stupid???
Report Post »dr_funk
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:04pmMan, there are some real nuts on here. It never existed? Are you people out of your minds? There’s footage of the rocket lifting off.
Quit going to all the “moon landing was faked” sites…its starting to screw with your perceptions of reality.
Report Post »Bum thrower
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 5:33pmYea; Congress has lost contact with reality, too, and is living in the land of OZ!!!
Report Post »VegasGuy
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 7:28pmThis story line reeks of disinformation. I’ll bet it was a roaring success.
Report Post »avenger
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 7:49pmhmmm.loaded with a nuke and going for iran…
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 9:22pmThey probably lost it when it went behind Mars, due to a ’rounding’ error caused by their “Intel” processor and confusing imperial and metric systems of quantification of distance and consumption based on concepts still only unproven theories of sophomoric intern drug induced hallucination.
Don’t worry though, it has a fail safe that always brings it home when it gets hungry.
Report Post »Pujols
Posted on August 12, 2011 at 11:29amOf course they lost it. It goes 13,000 miles an hour and it’s not going to the moon or outer space.
Watch out for China. Theirs is still coming down on track. BTW, Obama is a Nightmear.
Report Post »He’s the nightmear so many tried to warn you of back in 2008. The Chinese are being
more of Capitalist than we are. They are proof that it works. The Libs are proof Socialisum
doesn’t work. Obamas plains are a nightmear. Can you see it yet? OPEN EYES!
Charbet
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:34pmSuper-Repo Man from China strikes again..
Report Post »NotFooled
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:51pmLMAO!! Wouldn’t surprise me.
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:33pmYup; now another one of our toys that the Chinese will eventually get its hands on. Idiots these guys are that are running our high tech experiments. Let’s hope for all our sakes that this device blew up in the atmosphere or went so fast that it entered into another dimension. ;)
:)
Report Post »ninjapiratekris
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 7:31pmWell it only needs to hit 88mph to go back in time.
Report Post »randy
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:33pmDon’t believe this, whaddya wanna bet it landed in ChIna? :)
Report Post »HD Veteran
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:37pmOr maybe… this is to throw off the Chinese, make them use resources in the search for a non-missing glider….
Report Post »aaronkcmo
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:31pmAt least we still know that the USA is the only country in the world that can afford to spend tens of millions of dollars on developing technology. There is absolutely no defense system capable of neutralizing a hypersonic projectile.
I sleep better at night knowing that DARPA is flying on the very cutting edge of flight and next-gen weaponry, AND the best that China can do is buy second-hand warships and fly planes that are already obsolete when they are created/bought.
Report Post »Truthbeliever2
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 2:17pmThe U.S. Is probably just working out all the bugs for the coming world police.
Report Post »TwinShadow
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 3:07pm@Truthbeliever2
Report Post »There is only limited protections when you’re on the internet. Freedom of Speech is not well-protected on some sites, or at all, due to concerns. The first amendment was intended for a type of verbal speech, protests, and other various things covered in it.
thx1138v2
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 3:19pmUnless, of course, they destroy it before it goes hyper-sonic. If it’s sitting atop a missle in a silo it is a sitting duck. Being launched from a rocket makes it suceptible to interception. Even if the rocket is on a train, plane or submarine it is going to take some time to get up to speed.
And then there are all those nasty particle beam weapons that essentially travel at the speed of light.
Go ahead. Go back to sleep.
Report Post »TulsaYeeHaw
Posted on August 12, 2011 at 12:08amI want to develop a lightsaber and go impress women with it.
Report Post »wewantchillywilly
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:31pmso that’s what landed in my pool
Report Post »Secessionista
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:30pmIn this case, I am FOR increasing the unemployment rate.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:30pmCalled it.
Report Post »AIDANMAN
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:29pmno it went to china, its the cover story for all us rubes…
the chinese will dump it some where later
Report Post »AnAmerican111
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:29pmDon’t worry! Chinese found it and are sending the payoff to OBUMA!
Report Post »308Hammer
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:28pmoops
Report Post »Karlsan
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:25pmI lost my RC airplane one time. Had to climb four or five fences to get it. Maybe these folks should look in Jimmy’s backyard, that’s where mine was.
Report Post »mntwins
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:24pmNow where did I put that multi-million dollar hypersonic jet? I could have sworn I left it in the garage. Oh well, I just build a new one. We have plenty of money for that…..right?
Report Post »My Two Cents
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:47pmThey are ******* away ENCINOM’s lunch money.
Report Post »dfmcse
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:24pmI’m thinking it entered a wormhole and is now in the Delta Quadrant.
Report Post »hifi74
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:39pmHeh, I loved that show. Still watch episodes on Netflix from
Report Post »Time to time
SacredHonor1776
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 2:16pmIn a few centuries it will come back partially repaired, and think its orders is to detroy man…
Report Post »Rogue
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:24pmIf the adminstration is involved, we may see a big mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv soon.
Report Post »AIDANMAN
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:30pmyou mean somewhere over isreal? they support iran
Report Post »Guy on internet
Posted on August 12, 2011 at 1:04am@AIDANMAN: Tel Aviv is in Israel, brainiac.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:23pmLet me guess, the Taliban shot it down?
Report Post »tmplarnite
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:22pmHow, the hell does the Gov’t dip switches lose contact with a plane in the atmosphere?????? We can talk to probe on mars and you can’t talk to plane “IN” the atmosphere…“twice”…Idiots…Our government is run by idiots!!!!!
Report Post »thx1138v2
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 3:28pmThey can’t communicate with it because of the same problem they ran into with the Challenger space shuttle. Do you have any idea how much friction is caused by something moving through the air a Mach 20?
The SR-71 Blackbird “only” flew at Mach 3+ and the most noticable thing about it before a flight was all of the fuel leaking out onto the ground. They had to fly it to heat it up enough with friction against the air to get the fuel tanks to expand and seal. If the tanks were sealed on the ground they would burst from the expansion caused by friction heat.
Report Post »tmplarnite
Posted on August 12, 2011 at 6:33pmReally, you prove my point…idiots……………Excuses…excuses…they are the experts and/or they have the expertise or should…if not get it…first… if not…wait before you waste the $Billions in planes…I repeat….stupid arrogant ignorant idiots!
Report Post »olderjarhead
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:20pmDon’t buy into the misinformation. I’m sure it was a 100% success. Maybe the PHD homeless guy could have saved it!
Report Post »JohnK144
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:17pmI’m sure obama had the thing sent straight to the Chinese in exchange for a meager campaign contribution.
Report Post »vennoye
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:28pmAdditional interest on the debt.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:16pmNowhere near China, Russia, or Iran, I hope.
Report Post »HTuttle
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:13pmGood GOD! I certainly hope they are reassuring any Muslim scientists involved in this that it’s NOT THEIR FAULT!
Report Post »SimpleTruths
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:17pmBigot much?
Report Post »HTuttle
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:20pmAsk NASA.
Report Post »randy
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:35pm@ SIMPLETRUTHS The bigot crap really is getting old a$$wipe
Report Post »trolltrainer
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:12pmwhoopsie…
Report Post »nysparkie
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:11pmThat was a “GOOD”? idea while it lasted. How much money just “Disappeared?”
Report Post »caexpat
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:11pmWhere is Waldo?…
Report Post »Sargon
Posted on August 11, 2011 at 1:09pmIt’s probably flying around the moon right now.
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