September 2024
Hypersonics and the route to orbit
...service. For a start, SES has its ambitions firmly fixed on revolutionising global connectivity with hypersonic travel. The holy grail of hypersonic flight at Mach 5 would reduce transcontinental travel times by eye-watering amounts: for example, the...
July 2014
X-51A Waverider, hypersonics, and the potential of airbreathing engines
... a test programme conceived by researchers at the United States Air Force Research Laboratory to probe the limits of socalled ‘hypersonic’ fl ight, in excess of fi ve times the speed of sound. The X-51A vehicles were built by The Boeing Company, each...
July 2014
The hypersonic grail: advances at DARPA, AFRL and beyond
... affordable Mach 5-plus scramjet-powered cruise missile. TBG, on the other hand, aims to demonstrate a rocket-launched hypersonic glide weapon capable of flying more than 1,800km in 10 minutes. Achieving these missile demonstration goals will require...
November 2017
Delivering a revolutionary reduction in space launch costs
...-breathing flight from standstill to Mach 5+, before transitioning into rocket mode, allowing orbital access. Unlike other hypersonic propulsion systems, it can power a vehicle from take-off to high Mach flight as a single propulsion installation and...
June 2022
Military space – how worried should we be?
... of the 2020s. Military actions in space, such as Russian Nudol anti-satellite tests and China reportedly flying hypersonic weapons in orbit, quickly attract popular attention. Think-tanks publish ready advice for governments on space security...
January 2023
China’s space ambitions fuel defence spending and global innovation
... next-generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) satellites use infrared sensors to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. Next, the Space Development Agency’s plan to launch the Transport Layer or 126 communications satellites...
