$120 Million Just Fell Into the Ocean

[dannno]

Meh :shrugs:


http://www.independent.com/news/2011...er-test-fails/

Hypersonic Glider Test Fails

Controllers Quickly Lose Contact After Separation from Rocket
Thursday, August 11, 2011
By Tyler Hayden

Though this morning's rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base went off without a hitch, the Minotaur IV's payload didn't perform as well. An experimental glider capable of slicing through the atmosphere at 13,000 miles per hour — called the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 — was supposed to separate from the rocket and fly 4,000 miles to the Marshall Islands.

Instead, it petered out soon after being released at around 7:55 a.m., nosediving into the Pacific Ocean and drowning the $120 million mission. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which funded and ran the experiment, announced via Twitter that “downrange assets did not reacquire tracking or telemetry. [The Falcon] has an autonomous flight termination capability.”

The disappointing flight is another roadblock for aerospace engineers who've struggled for years to develop a vehicle with hypersonic capabilities. When it's working right, the Falcon can reach Mach 20 and, hypothetically, deliver a military strike anywhere in the world within an hour. The last test occurred in April 2010. That flight lasted around nine minutes before controllers lost contact.

[Agorism]

Two of them in a row actually.

[Texan4Life]

Welp... fail.gov

[Lafayette]

These things are supposed to crash into the ground and the can't even do that right.

[nobody's_hero]

Putin will find it in 2 scuba dives or less.

At 13,000 miles per hour, I wonder if you could even see it before it hit the water? You'd probably just hear a whizzing sound and a suddenly a giant splash.

[noxagol]

Putin will find it in 2 scuba dives or less.

At 13,000 miles per hour, I wonder if you could even see it before it hit the water? You'd probably just hear a whizzing sound and a suddenly a giant splash.

The shuttle moves at 39,600 miles per hour at some point (escape velocity is 11 miles per second)

[TheViper]

The shuttle moves at 39,600 miles per hour at some point (escape velocity is 11 miles per second)

Escape velocity is 17,500 mph (not 39,600 mph...I think you may have your mph and kph mixed up) and they maintain that speed while in orbit. The highest speed a shuttle will travel is Approx 18,000 for a few moments during re-entry.

[VBRonPaulFan]

Putin will find it in 2 scuba dives or less.

At 13,000 miles per hour, I wonder if you could even see it before it hit the water? You'd probably just hear a whizzing sound and a suddenly a giant splash.

Probably just for a fraction of a second, if you knew it was coming and were looking in the exactly the right direction.