US to test 13,600 mph hypersonic vehicle

Los Angeles Air Force Base, El Segundo, Calif: The Pentagon is scheduled to test on Thursday a hypersonic aircraft capable of reaching speeds of up to 13,000mph, or 3.6 miles a second. Such speeds would allow the distance between Los Angeles and New York to be covered in just 12 minutes or cover the distance between London and Sydney in under 60 minutes.

The second flight of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2), developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is scheduled to launch Thursday from the Space Launch Complex 8 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif, aboard a Minotaur IV Lite rocket.

The Minotaur rocket will carry the HTV-2 to the edge of space where it will separate from the rocket before flying over the Pacific at lightning speeds of up to Mach 20.

The US military is interested in developing hypersonic aircraft which will provide them with a prompt global reach capability, allowing them to respond to situations in less than an hour.

This will be the 4th launch of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Minotaur IV rocket which uses decommissioned Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missile motors.

"The first flight of HTV-2 allowed DARPA to greatly increase our understanding of the hypersonic environments encountered by the vehicle; the data collection was a resounding success. The entire team is looking forward to yet another successful flight demonstration for our DARPA partners," said Col. Kent Nickle, chief of US Air Force Space Development and Test Directorate's Launch Systems Division and HTV-2 Flight 2 Mission Director.