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DARPA Loses Hypersonic Vehicle, $320M Destroyed


Keyes777

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Seems I’m not the only one having trouble losing rockets

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/11/darpa-readies-hypersonic-aircraft-for-mach-20-launch-test/

I think this is their second attempt (first one lasted 9 minutes). I guess no matter how advanced we’ve gotten in space technology, there are still plenty of room for error.

(in b4 Jeb should have been at the helm)

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I heard about this thing. They're planning to turn it into a cruise-missile with worldwide range. They like the idea because it can glide as far as a ballistic missile goes (well, almost), but it doesn't look enough like an ICBM to scare other countries into launching their nukes.

And the $320M is the total program cost, not that of a single vehicle. If you're paying $320 million for a missile, it BETTER be able to carry nukes halfway around the world.

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Just getting the thing into near-space and then getting it hyper-sonic is a HUGE accomplishment. Since almost nothing has traveled at hyper-sonic speeds in atmosphere they are doing fine for such unknown territory.

Note: They have spent $320 mill on the ENTIRE PROGRAM and that's the 2nd test vehicle.

Just think how powerful of a system they are creating. If the vehicle is sitting and waiting it can be to any point on Earth in about an hour or less. Pack a warhead on the thing and fly it into the target you can blow up an enemy nuke as they are prepping it for launch.

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Faux News is not a legitimate press service.

BBC and Al Jazeera English are the only old-media that I trust on world news anymore.

Just getting the thing into near-space and then getting it hyper-sonic is a HUGE accomplishment. Since almost nothing has traveled at hyper-sonic speeds in atmosphere they are doing fine for such unknown territory.

OMG SO REVOLUTIONARY

THERE'S NO WAY THEY COULD'VE DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BACK IN THE '60s-ohwait...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASSET_%28spaceplane%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-23_PRIME

Just think how powerful of a system they are creating. If the vehicle is sitting and waiting it can be to any point on Earth in about an hour or less. Pack a warhead on the thing and fly it into the target you can blow up an enemy nuke as they are prepping it for launch.

Yeah, I guess. I dunno how useful the thing'd actually be, but I will admit it's pretty frickin' cool.

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We do a fair bit of hypersonic's research at my uni, including some scramjet research (though i'm not personally involved in any of it). We were the first to light an actual scramject though, supposedly.

The technology (that we're using here) has a very long way to go from making burning proof of concept flights to actually powering anything significant though.

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