Nichols Martin
Stratolaunch has secured a contract to help the Missile Defense Agency assess the feasibility of reusing hypersonic testbeds for missile defense systems.
The company said Tuesday it is on track to begin hypersonic flight testing of its Talon-A 1 test vehicle in 2022, which will follow the platform’s power-on testing scheduled to start before 2021 ends.
Daniel Millman, chief technology officer of Stratolaunch, shared that the company is geared to conduct a feasibility study that can help MDA understand how to intercept threats moving at hypersonic speeds.
Stratolaunch is preparing to wrap up the next test-flights of its Roc carrier aircraft, which the Talon-A test vehicles will launch from.
The rocket-powered TA-0 and TA-1 vehicles operate autonomously and are designed to serve as reusable testbeds capable of flying at speeds beyond Mach 5.
