Why are these defense and space agencies always losing contact with the vehicles they send up into space. NASA does it and now DARPA seems to be following suit. Remixx World! reported on the recent launch of the Minotaur IV (Orbital Suborbital Program ll (OSP-2) Minotaur IV Space Launch Vehicle (SLV) Set for Liftoff on DARPA Mission to Develop Hypersonic Technologies) that carried this Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2) in its payload.The third stage of the Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV Lite booster successfully completed energy-management maneuvers, released its clamshell payload fairing and deployed the HTV-2 at the edge of the atmosphere, but telemetry signals from the hypersonic glider were lost about 9 minutes into the mission, DARPA says.
Launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. on April 22, the unmanned HTV-2 was planned to cross the Pacific and impact the ocean north of Kwajalein Atoll in the first of two flights to demonstrate technology for a prompt global strike weapon capable of flying 9,000nm in less than 2 hours.
Source: Aviation Week
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