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Stratolaunch’s Roc carrier aircraft returns to Mojave with the TA-2 still attached on Dec 13.
COLORADO SPRINGS—Stratolaunch is setting up for a third attempt at the first reusable test flight of the Talon A hypersonic testbed after aborting a second mission on Dec. 17.
The planned test of the second Talon TA-2 flight was scrubbed because winds at the planned recovery site at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, were out of limits. The second attempt followed an initial launch effort on Dec. 13 that was abandoned due to low temperatures at the drop altitude.
The targeted flight is the first under Stratolaunch’s five-flight block buy with the U.S. Navy Multi-Service Hypersonic Advanced Capability Hypersonics Test Bed (MACH-TB) program. It marks the company’s first attempt to fly the Talon-A at speeds of more than Mach 5. Conditions at Vandenberg are also critical as the mission will be Stratolaunch’s first attempt to recover the vehicle with a runway landing.
The only previous powered flight of a Talon-A—vehicle TA-1—was conducted on March 9 and ended with a deliberate ditching in the ocean. Like the Dec. 13 attempt, the latest flight saw the Roc carrier aircraft take off from Mojave Air & Space Port, California, and transit to the Point Mugu Range Complex off the California coast, adjacent to Vandenberg SFB. The Roc crew performed several racetrack circuits, accompanied by two chase aircraft—a Cessna 550 Citation II and an Eclipse 500—before returning to Mojave after 4 hr. 10 min.
Meanwhile, the area around Vandenberg SFB continues to see northwest winds with gusts up to 40 mph and is currently subject to a wind advisory that is not due to expire until 10 p.m. PST this evening.
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