The Missile Defense Agency and its partners carried out the initial flight of a testbed designed to provide a common platform for conducting hypersonic experiments.
MDA Director Lt. Gen. Heath Collins said in a statement published Friday the Hypersonic Test Bed-1 represents a key step in advancing a hypersonic testing capability.
“HTB will allow the U.S. to pursue a broad range of state of the art technologies able to operate reliably in hypersonic flight environments,” added Collins, a 2024 Wash100 awardee.
MDA noted that the HTB-1 test provided the agency with a viewing opportunity for its Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, which gathered data after launch based on initial reports.
The agency will continue to evaluate flight data over the next several weeks.
