WASHINGTON — The U.S. is re-entering the era of reusable hypersonic flight testing for the first time in more than half a century, using an autonomous drone developed by Stratolaunch.
The hypersonic vehicle named Talon A2 exceeded Mach 5—the threshold for hypersonic speed—in two Pentagon-backed test flights conducted in December 2024 and March 2025, the Defense Department confirmed May 5.
The flights mark the first time since the X-15 program, which ended in 1968, that the U.S. has conducted reusable hypersonic testing.
The X-15 hypersonic research program was a collaboration with NASA, the U.S. Air Force and the Navy. It operated for nearly 10 years and set a speed record of Mach 6.7. The program contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo piloted spaceflight programs as well as the Space Shuttle program.
The Talon-A is operated by Stratolaunch, a company founded in 2011 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The flights were conducted under the Multi-Service Advanced Capability Hypersonic Test Bed (MACH-TB) program, a Defense Department initiative aimed at accelerating hypersonic weapons development by tapping into commercially available testing platforms. Stratolaunch works under a contract from Leidos, which manages MACH-TB on behalf of the Pentagon’s Test Resource Management Center.
“Demonstrating the reuse of fully recoverable hypersonic test vehicles is an important milestone for MACH-TB,” said George Rumford, director of the TRMC.
Launched from Roc, Stratolaunch’s massive carrier aircraft boasting a record-breaking 385-foot wingspan, the Talon-A2 drone was released over the Pacific Ocean in the latest tests, reached speeds above Mach 5, and landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Stratolaunch said its reusable platform offers a lower-cost, rapid-turnaround alternative to traditional expendable systems, allowing faster data retrieval and repeated testing.
The success of these tests marks a turnaround for Stratolaunch, which struggled financially following Allen’s death in 2018. The company, originally created to launch orbital rockets from the air, was acquired in 2019 by Cerberus Capital Management, which shifted its focus toward hypersonic testing—a pivot that has since aligned with growing military demand.
The March 2024 flight of the company’s first Talon-A expendable model, TA-1, reached high supersonic speeds just shy of Mach 5. The new version, TA-2, is fully reusable.
Hypersonic weapons have become a priority for the Pentagon amid concerns over China and Russia’s advancements. These systems are designed to maneuver mid-flight and evade traditional missile defenses, prompting the U.S. to fast-track its own development programs and deploy defense networks such as the so-called Golden Dome, a planned layered missile defense system.
The Talon-A2 is powered by Ursa Major’s Hadley rocket engine, a 5,000-pound-thrust liquid oxygen and kerosene, oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle reusable rocket engine designed for small launch vehicles and hypersonic applications.
