NASA has scheduled the third and final flight of the X-43A hypersonic research vehicle for no earlier than 8 November. The unmanned, expendable vehicle will be dropped from NASA's Boeing B-52 over the Pacific, rocket-boosted and released to test the hydrogen-fuelled scramjet engine at Mach 10. The first X-43A was lost in a booster failure, but the second reached M6.7. NASA and Orbital Sciences have rescheduled the air launch of their Dart autonomous orbital rendezvous technology demonstrator to 4 November after finding contamination in the Pegasus launch vehicle.
Source: Flight International
