Hypersonic Research: A National Imperative 

Are on dope? These whiny soy-boys won't even post the twst flight schedule. Hope they fail. Screw them. I want to see it in person. Not on the news.

context pls?

@@KuostA As per a Scott Manley video i saw (the title is “Abandoned SpaceX Rocket Designs: Falcon 1e, 5, 9S5 & Air”) they did a collaboration with Scaled Composites where they would build the rocket (short of maybe a small wing), and Scaled Composites would build the Aircraft (the Stratolaunch). Due to it loosing some part commonality, and also them just not needing Stratolaunch anymore they just left. I need to reed some proper primary sources to get more data, not just regurgitate the Scott Manley Video, but *in my opinion* it killed of a very interesting and potentially more capable and/or cheaper launch option in favor of Profits for SpaceX.

appreciate the insight! I'll have to look for more info on that myself, haven't heard of that yet.@@ericlotze7724

This isn’t the only vehicle ROC is designed for. It’s also designed to fly simultaneously with multiple Talons.

Making a single thing, and developing Production Engineering to build a plant that makes hundreds of them is a very different task. A good example of this is the F-35 vs the Russian “Equivalent” the SU-57. Valid Complaints about Corruption/The Military Industrial Complex and such aside, we are *churning out* and Exporting F-35s an AMAZING platform that will hope be the B-52 of Multirole Fighter Jets. Russia has made a few of the SU-57s, *supposedly* up to 76 by now. As per an Air and Space Forces Magazine Article, “the worldwide F-35 fleet now numbers 894 airplanes. Lockheed officials have said they are contemplating a celebration at their Fort Worth, Texas facility in late summer, when the 1,000th F-35 will roll off the assembly line.” ~12 Times as Much Produced if my napkin math is correct. Also a Test Article needs to “Just Work” and doesn’t need to be Optimized for Low Cost/Ease of Handling/Storage etc In the comments section of the Scott Manley video on the *smallest* nuclear explosions someone made an AMAZING comment on this. Essentially it boiled down to “making a foolproof nuke that is handled by crane and is a one off design (to an extent at least) is *WAY* easier than making the smallest cheapest nuke, and making hundreds of them. Also making sure they can last for years in storage, not a few days between finishing being built and being tested. *ANYWHO* that’s my rant, sorry for that wordwall; hope I didn’t come off as rude, and i hope you learned something/found this interesting. Thanks for reading this far.

Agreed. We're in the age of Direct Energy Weapons, advanced machine learning, drones, cyber warfare, and increasingly less reliable power grids. This feels like an extension of 20th century tech.

And of course, orbital weapons platforms.

@@blondiepianist Those were deployed in the 80-ties! Fully operational, some were neutralized by the ETs