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For over 10 years the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on a plan to launch air strikes anywhere on Earth in less than an hour.
Wednesday August 10, 2011 at about 7 AM PDT, a 3-stage Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV launcher is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg AFB in California. It will then release an experimental aircraft; the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2. The Falcon HTV2 will then fly back to Earth at nearly Mach 20, splashing down near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean - 4,100 miles away from the launch point.
Total flight time: ~30 minutes.
Falcon HTV2
Wednesday August 10, 2011 at about 7 AM PDT, a 3-stage Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV launcher is scheduled to lift off from Vandenberg AFB in California. It will then release an experimental aircraft; the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2. The Falcon HTV2 will then fly back to Earth at nearly Mach 20, splashing down near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean - 4,100 miles away from the launch point.
Total flight time: ~30 minutes.
Falcon HTV2
