Original Article Post Date:
Mon, 20/08/2012
Russia, China, and America’s Hypersonic Missile Race
By J. Michael Cole
August 20, 2012
At first everything went as planned: the vehicle separated from a B-52 Stratofortress high above a naval air warfare center sea range in California and decoupled from the rocket booster. But 31 seconds into the test, a problem developed with a cruiser control fin and the X-51A Waverider hypersonic vehicle plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, missing its target of cruising at Mach 6 for five minutes.