Stratolaunch TA-1 test vehicle completes captive carry flight 

On Dec. 3, Stratolaunch (Mojave, Calif., U.S.) announced the completion of a captive carry flight with the first powered Talon-A hypersonic vehicle, TA-1. The flight was the 12th for the company’s launch platform Roc and the first in which the aircraft carried a Talon vehicle with live propellant as part of a buildup approach for Talon-A’s first powered flight.

The flight lasted a total of 3 hours and 22 minutes and represented a significant step forward in the company’s near-term goal of completing a powered flight with the Talon-A vehicle, TA-1. A primary objective was to evaluate Talon-A’s propulsion system and the Talon environments while carrying live propellant. A second objective was to verify Roc and TA-1’s telemetry systems, which provides the situational awareness to ensure all systems are ready for powered flight during the release sequence.

“Talon-A’s propulsion system supports a liquid-propellant rocket engine that provides the thrust needed for Talon-A to reach hypersonic speeds. While we have conducted several successful ground tests fueling and igniting the system, we needed to evaluate how the system performs in the flight environment prior to release,” Dr. Zachary Krevor, CEO for Stratolaunch, says. “Initial results from the flight show that the system has performed as predicted, and we will determine our next steps pending the full data review of the test.”

Concurrent to TA-1 testing, Stratolaunch is progressing on the manufacturing of the TA-2 and TA-3 vehicles, the first fully reusable vehicles in that Talon-A product line. In addition to meeting this key test milestone, the company also recently announced two flight contracts with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory and the Navy’s Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB) program as a subcontractor to Leidos/Dynetics.