McDonnell Douglas’s Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X) subscale single-stage-to-orbit prototype makes a 60-second first flight at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The 42-foot-tall vehicle takes off vertically, hovers at about 150 feet, moves laterally approximately 350 feet, and lands tail down.
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr. assumed leadership of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, succeeding Navy Adm. John Aquilino at a change of command ceremony, urging action amid China's “increasing intrusive and expansionist claims,” on May 3