There were 12 suborbital flights last year that tested inflatable heat shields, scramjet and hypersonic propulsion, spy satellite cameras, and reusable launch vehicle technologies. Flights were conducted from the United States, India, Japan, Germany, Brazil and North Korea.

Risk reduction milestone paves way for airborne tests this year

ARLINGTON, Va. (DARPA PR) — DARPA and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) today announced successful completion of captive carry tests of two variants of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) and are ready to proceed to first free-flight testing within the calendar year. The joint Agency and Service effort seeks to develop and demonstrate critical technologies to enable an effective and affordable air-launched hypersonic cruise missile.

The New Shepard capsule separates from its booster as the abort motor fires. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Although orbital launch vehicles get all the glory (and infamy when they fail), 2016 was also a busy year for the far less glamorous suborbital launch sector. There were 19 suborbital launches at various sites around the world, and two more sounding rocket launches of note where the payload didn’t go above 100 km.
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Brad Sharp, Dr Melrose Brown and Dr Michael Creagh from the SCRAMSPACE team work to finalise the payload for the upcoming launch. (Credit: Donald Cook)

BRISBANE, Australia (UQ PR) — The six-day window to launch Australia’s SCRAMSPACE hypersonic scramjet began on Sunday, meaning the research flight could launch any day in the week following.

[Editor’s Note: According to the project’s Twitter feed, the flight was canceled for Tuesday due to weather. Another attempt will be made on Wednesday.]

The data-collecting research project led by The University of Queensland is scheduled to launch between September 15 and 21, subject to weather and testing.

SCRAMSPACE Director and Chair for Hypersonics at UQ Professor Russell Boyce said the team was ready and eager to launch the $14 million research project, which is capable of reaching speeds of 8600km/h.

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By John Hamilton
WSMR PAO

DLR PR — Can new types of engine make spaceflight easier and more economical? This question is being investigated by researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) using one of Europe’s leading hypersonic wind tunnels, located in Göttingen. The engine is being tested for an Australian Scramjet-based Access-to-Space Systems (SCRAMSPACE) experimental spacecraft – SCRAMSPACE I – scheduled for launch in 2013.

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UVA PR — Aerospace engineering researchers and students at the University of Virginia are helping to create a hypersonic “scramjet” engine that can travel at five times the speed of sound – or 3,700 mph. That’s about twice the speed of a bullet, and it’s technology that could one day allow a plane to fly from New York to Los Angeles in just 40 minutes.

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Railway to the Sky? NASA Ponders New Launch System
Space.com

Imagine this: A wedge-shaped aircraft attached to a supersonic jet engine is hurtling along an electrified track, carrying a pod or spacecraft destined for orbit. Sound farfetched? It may not be.

A team of engineers from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and some of the agency’s other field centers are looking into this and other novel launch systems based on cutting-edge technologies.

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X-51 Waverider

LOCKHEED MARTIN PRESS RELEASE

Lockheed Martin announced today that its Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rocket motor successfully boosted the experimental X-51A WaveRider beyond Mach 4.5, the speed at which a scramjet will start and begin to provide thrust. The successful boost helped the X-51 hypersonic scramjet engine to accelerate to a historic Mach 5, a first for the vehicle.

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The Air Force is developing hypersonic weapons that could also pave the way to rapid access to space.