By: Courtney Albon for Defense News
The Defense Department’s advanced missile tracking satellites logged their first views of a hypersonic flight test this week, according to the Missile Defense Agency.
MDA didn’t disclose the date of the flight, which took off from Wallops Island in Virginia. “Initial reports show the sensors successfully collected data after launch,” the agency said in a June 14 statement. “MDA will continue to assess flight data over the next several weeks.” The two Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellites are part of the Space Development Agency’s constellation of spacecraft designed to detect and observe hypersonic weapons or vehicles, which can travel at speeds of Mach 5 or higher.
