got geoint?

The highly anticipated test flight of the unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) — designed to fly through the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to Mach 20 — turned out to be a complete failure as military scientists lost contact with the glider nine minutes into the mission, last week. The glider was intended to be a new way of hitting distant targets with conventional weapons within an hour, which is being dubbed a “prompt global strike.” The test flight was a 30-minute mission in which the vehicle would glide at high speed before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. A DARPA spokesperson had this to say to AFP about the failed mission: “This was our first flight (all others were done in wind tunnels and simulations) so although of course we would like to have everything go perfectly, we still gathered data and can use findings for the next flight, scheduled currently for early 2011.” Look forward to seeing if this glitch is fixed by the 2011 test flight. Read the full AFP article here.

Tags: DARPA, Falcon Hypersonic, Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 Test flight, GEOINT, GIS, got geoint?, prompt global strike, Spy Satellites, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF