This pcmag article is from yesterday, the plane has already taken off. The Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/#!/DARPA_News) points to several updates after launch, and now to this news release (http://go.usa.gov/KLe) which says:
Separation of the vehicle was confirmed by rocket cam and the aircraft
transitioned to Mach 20 aerodynamic flight. This transition represents
a critical knowledge and control point in maneuvering atmospheric
hypersonic flight. More than nine minutes of data was collected before
an anomaly caused loss of signal. Initial indications are that the aircraft
impacted the Pacific Ocean along the planned flight path.
It's supposed to have automatic landing procedures (basically, to crash into the Pacific), so they may still be hoping for a recovery.
Interestingly, Flight 1, which flew in April of last year, also collected 9 minutes of data. Maybe they just have to speed it up so they get where they want to be in less than 9 minutes....
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2873003 - 4 comments
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2873313 - deleted
This pcmag article is from yesterday, the plane has already taken off. The Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/#!/DARPA_News) points to several updates after launch, and now to this news release (http://go.usa.gov/KLe) which says:
It's supposed to have automatic landing procedures (basically, to crash into the Pacific), so they may still be hoping for a recovery.Interestingly, Flight 1, which flew in April of last year, also collected 9 minutes of data. Maybe they just have to speed it up so they get where they want to be in less than 9 minutes....