After a two-day weather delay, an Air Force-industry team at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., launched April 22 at 4 p.m. the first Minotaur IV Lite expendable booster. The suborbital rocket, built by Orbital Sciences Corp., successfully launched its HTV-2 payload, according to a Vandenberg release. The HTV-2, DARPA’s hypersonic test vehicle-2, was to glide over the Pacific Ocean at about 13,000 mph for approximately 30 minutes and crash land near the Kwajalein Atoll. As of Friday afternoon, there was no word on the result of the hypersonic glide vehicle test. (Also see Vandenberg release; Santa Maria Times report; Associated Press report)
Three of four congressional committees with influence over defense policy have voted to change the official name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War—but final approval of the Pentagon rebrand is months away and not yet assured.