In a captive-carry test Dec. 9, a B-52 carried aloft the X-51 Waverider hypersonic test vehicle over Edwards AFB, Calif., paving the way for the X-51’s flight test in early 2010. At that time, researchers expect the Waverider to light its supersonic combustion ramjet engine for a five-minute hypersonic flight over the Pacific Ocean. “We successfully captured all of our test points without any anomalies,” said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager with Air Force Research Lab’s propulsion directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, of last week’s test. AFRL, which has teamed with DARPA, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and Rocketdyne on the project, expects to conduct one more “full dress rehearsal” before the first hypersonic test flight in February, said Brink. (Wright-Patt release; mating tests were conducted in summer 2009)
Advancements in commercial space technology could make President Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense network far more likely to succeed than the failed “Star Wars” strategic umbrella initiative of the 1980s, U.S. Space Command’s top general said May 22....