This artist's concept depicts the Hyper-X research vehicle riding on a booster rocket prior to being launched by the Dryden Flight Research Center's B-52 at about 40,000 feet.
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This artist’s concept depicts the Hyper-X research vehicle riding on a booster rocket prior to being launched by the Dryden Flight Research Center’s B-52 at about 40,000 feet. The X-43A was developed to flight test a dual-mode ramjet/scramjet propulsion system at speeds from Mach 7 up to Mach 10 (7 to 10 times the speed of sound, which varies with temperature and altitude).1997NASA Photo / NASA› X-43A Project Description