internet buzz: doubts about darpa falcon htv-2 crash

Did the joint DARPA and US Air Force-backed  HTV-2 (HyperTechnologyVehicle-2), crash into the Pacific as widely reported? Brooks Agnew interviewed Kevin Smith on X-squared radio recently. Smith suggests only telemetry was lost after nine minutes, switching to a secure channel to send a message. The test flight demonstrates, in Smith's opinion, a vehicle capable of Mach 20 (13,000 mph) or 3.5 to 4 miles per second, which implies an ability to strike anywhere on Earth in about an hour! DARPA shut down the show once sufficient global strike capacity was demonstrated to the world, according to Smith. The host of the Kevin Smith Show believes the hypersonic plane is capable of much higher speeds! Alex Jones suggests during a recent interview with Bob Bowman, the HTV-2 is reported lost to make opportunities for launches. Jones sees a possible deception to allow placing more weapons platforms into space. Jones points out "reported top speed" is not necessarily real speed!

Freeman interviews Carolyn Rose Goyda, a former McDonnell Douglas employee, who also harbors doubts about HTV-2 test flight and problems. The computer scientist and engineer states, from experience, hypersonic flight shouldn't be a technical challenge. Goyda sees only reason for flights, she could think of, would be to test new composites? One oddity, Goyda finds strange, is announcement of launch through Twitter! "DARPA doesn't do that!" Is it feigned ineptitude to provide cover for ruthless war preparation?

darpa hypersonic plane crashes nine minutes into flight

A Minataur IV rocket placed the DARPA Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 in proper trajectory but the plane capable of Mach 20 [13,000 mph] could not be controlled, plummeting early Thursday into Pacific Ocean as reported by The Independent. The cost of the vehicle is estimated on the net anywhere from 240-320 million and you thought gas was expensive? The present writer can't say it's a disappointment, the vehicle is intended to provide a quick 'global strike' capability.

sun has largest eruption in four years

from redorbit: NASA said on Tuesday that the sun unleashed the biggest solar flare in four years. The NOAA GOES satellite measured an X6.9 flare on August 9, 2011 at 3:48 a.m. EDT The bursts of radiation cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to harm humans on the ground, but it can disrupt GPS and communications signal, according to NASA. "It was a big flare," Joe Kunches, a space scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center told CBS News. "We lucked out because the site of the eruption at the sun was not facing the Earth, so we will probably feel no ill effects." The space agency said it could produce enough increased solar energetic proton radiation to affect humans in space if they do not protect themselves. There was also a coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the flare. CMEs, according to NASA, are another solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and affect electronic systems in salutes and on Earth. However, the space agency said the CME is not traveling is not toward Earth so no effects are expected from it.

related updates:
second flop: darpa loses contact with htv-2*
the darkest world known to man: hot tres-2b's darkness not understood*