Stratolaunch Successfully Completes Captive Carry Flight With Hypersonic Vehicle TA-1

Stratolaunch, the operator of the world's largest aircraft gave an update following its latest captive carry flight. However, there's still no date for the long-delayed test flight.

Stratolaunch Completed a Captive Carry Flight With TA-1 Vehicle

Earlier this month, Stratolaunch announced in a press release that it just completed a captive carry flight with the first powered Talon-A hypersonic vehicle, TA-1. As part of the build-up to Talon-A's first powered flight, the aircraft carried a Talon vehicle with live propellant on its 12th flight using the company's Roc launch platform.

The three-hour and 22-minute flight was a major step toward the company's near-term aim of accomplishing a powered flight with the TA-1 Talon-A vehicle. One of the main goals was to evaluate the propulsion system of Talon-A and the Talon environs while carrying live propellants. Verifying the telemetry systems of Roc and TA-1 was the second goal. This gives the situational awareness needed to ensure all the systems are prepared for powered flight during the release process.

"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," said Dr. Zachary Krevor, Chief Executive Officer for Stratolaunch. "Initial results from today's flight show that the system has performed as predicted, and we will determine our next steps pending the full data review of the test."

Stratolaunch is moving on with the production of the TA-2 and TA-3 vehicles, the first fully reusable vehicles in the Talon-A product line, in tandem with the TA-1 testing. The business not only achieved this important test milestone but also just revealed two flight deals with the U.S. As a subcontractor to Leidos/Dynetics, the Air Force Research Laboratory is part of the Navy's Multiservice Advanced Capability Test Bed (MACH-TB) program.

Hypersonic Vehicle TA-1 Still Has No Launch Date?

Following its most recent test flight in May, Stratolaunch said that TA-1 was completely loaded "with live propellant as part of a buildup approach for Talon-A's first powered flight." This flight was scheduled to occur this past summer but there was no update about it.

Roc demonstrated a clean separation from the mothership by flying an unpowered Talon-A during that mission, as you can see below. The dual-fuselage Roc is intended to launch reusable Talon-As from a height of 30,000 feet. It bears the Talon-A between its two bodies. The jumbo-jumbo plane can carry up to three Talon-A hypersonic aircraft.

Since then, though, Stratolaunch has mainly remained silent, and it appears that the expected summer launch of the TA-1, a test vessel intended to be used only once, has come to an abrupt halt.

In November, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics stated that Stratolaunch intended to fly TA-1 before the year ended. However, with only a few days remaining in 2023, the startup is only now starting to fly TA-1 to observe how it responds to its operating environment when fully fueled.

Hypersonic vehicles are designed to travel at Mach 5 or faster while still being controlled. The US seemingly has had difficulty keeping up with the latest innovation in the international arms race-ultra-fast craft.

China, Russia, and North Korea-all longtime US adversaries-have all asserted that they possess hypersonic missiles, and the US conducted its first test launch of an air-launched rapid response weapon (ARRW) last year.