The U.S. Defense Advance Research Project Agency provided more details about its aborted hypersonic mission Thursday after the craft lost contact with the agency and prematurely plunged into the Pacific Ocean.
The agency said that it had managed to collect “more than nine minutes of data” before
“an anomaly caused loss of signal. Initial indications are that the aircraft impacted the Pacific Ocean along the planned flight path.”
That nine minutes is about the same amount of time that it took before the the first version of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle had a problem last April.
Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, DARPA HTV-2 program manager and PhD in aerospace engineering said about the day’s events:
“Here’s what we know: We know how to boost the aircraft to near space. We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight.
We do not yet know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight. It’s vexing; I’m confident there is a solution. We have to find it.”
He noted that the agency was collecting data on the flight from more than 20 air, land, sea and space data collection systems.
“We’ll learn. We’ll try again. That’s what it takes,” he said.
For more background about the project, click here.
