Date published: 2006/03/25
The BBC says:
A new jet engine designed to fly at seven times the speed of sound appears to have been successfully tested.
The scramjet engine, the Hyshot III, was launched at Woomera, 500km north of Adelaide in Australia, on the back of a two stage Terrier-Orion rocket.
Once 314km up, the Hyshot III fell back to Earth, reaching speeds analysts hope will have topped Mach 7.6 (9,000km/h).
It is hoped the British-designed Hyshot III will pave the way for ultra fast, intercontinental air travel.
An international team of researchers is presently analysing data from the experiment, to see if it met its objectives.
The scientists had just six seconds to monitor its performance before the £1m engine crashed into the ground.
Rachel Owen, a researcher from UK defence firm QinetiQ, which designed the scramjet, said it looked like everything had gone according to plan.
The BBC also says:
The new Falcon 1 rocket has been lost on its maiden flight.
The US vehicle, developed by the Space Exploration Technologies Corp, was destroyed soon after take-off from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The vision of Elon Musk, co-founder of the electronic payment system PayPal, the Falcon was designed to cut the cost of current satellite launches.
An onboard camera appeared to show the rocket rolling out of control shortly before the video signal was lost.
SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp) spokeswoman Gwynn Shotwell told reporters on a conference call that there was about a minute of powered flight.
"We do know that the vehicle did not succeed after that," she said. "Clearly this is a setback but we're in this for the long haul."
So some (possibly) good news and some bad news on the technology front. Having rocket launching capability independent of government would be a particularly welcome development. (Well, no doubt the US government will exert undue pressure on any rocket launching company since it believes it has the right to control space.)
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