The Defense Innovation Unit has conducted a suborbital launch of a hypersonic test platform as part of the Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities, or HyCAT, program.
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DIU said Monday the Cassowary Vex mission lifted off Friday, Feb. 27, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
According to the agency, the flight demonstrated the ability to inject a payload at defined speeds and altitudes into a high-dynamic-pressure environment to validate propulsion and vehicle performance. The mission combined a modified Rocket Lab suborbital launch vehicle with a scramjet-powered test article developed by Hypersonix.
What Is the Cassowary Vex Mission Architecture?
The Cassowary Vex mission architecture integrated two primary HyCAT components: an air-breathing hypersonic testbed and a commercial suborbital launch system.
Rocket Lab supplied a modified Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron, or HASTE, vehicle. DIU said the modification included an extended fairing with thermal protection and separation systems designed to enable low-altitude payload release for air-breathing propulsion testing.
The payload was Hypersonix’s three-meter DART AE demonstrator, a gaseous hydrogen-fueled scramjet vehicle built using high-temperature alloy additive manufacturing.
“Accessing the commercial and non-traditional ecosystem is a key enabler to accelerating progress in the hypersonics community of interest, particularly for closing mission timelines and driving towards mass and affordability,” said Lt. Col. Nicholas Estep, emerging technologies portfolio director at DIU.
What Is the HyCAT Program?
Introduced in early 2023, the HyCAT program aims to speed up the development, evaluation and transition of emerging hypersonic technologies through low-cost, long-endurance test flights.
In March 2023, DIU awarded HyCAT prototype contracts to companies, including Hypersonix Launch Systems and Fenix Space, to develop airborne hypersonic test systems and reusable launch platforms. That same year, the agency issued a vendor solicitation for the program’s next phase.
According to DIU, limited wind tunnel capacity and a shortage of reusable flight platforms have constrained progress across the hypersonics portfolio. HyCAT supports the prototyping of low-cost, commercially derived airborne testing systems to supplement traditional government infrastructure and increase flight test cadence.
