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Uncrewed aircraft · Air

Talon-A

Stratolaunch reusable, autonomous, air-launched hypersonic flight-test vehicle.

by Stratolaunch

PrototypeUncrewed aircraftAirMilestoneMar 2025
stratolaunch.com/vehicles/talon-a
Milestones20242025
  1. MilestoneFirst recoverable hypersonic flight, confirmed
  2. MilestoneSecond recoverable hypersonic flight, confirmed

Reusable uncrewed hypersonic testbed carried aloft by Stratolaunch's Roc aircraft, used to fly customer technologies in hypersonic conditions.

Timeline2

  1. MilestoneConfirmed

    First recoverable hypersonic flight

    Flew above Mach 5 over the Pacific and landed at Vandenberg SFB, for the Test Resource Management Center's MACH-TB project.

    SourcesU.S. Department of Defense

  2. MilestoneConfirmed

    Second recoverable hypersonic flight

    Second Mach 5+ flight of a recovered Talon-A, showing the vehicle can be reused.

    SourcesU.S. Department of Defense

Solid entries are confirmed, outlined reported, dashed estimated or still to come; dotted italic entries are speculative. Dates show only the precision the sources give.

Sources2

  1. 1.
    Government recordDOD Demonstrates Reusability of Hypersonic Test Vehicle

    U.S. Department of Defense · May 14, 2025 · Supports: System milestone

    “The Defense Department conducted a second successful flight of a fully recoverable uncrewed hypersonic test vehicle in March 2025, with the first being in December 2024.”
  2. 2.
    CompanyMeet Talon-A

    Stratolaunch · Supports: System

    “Talon-A is the only autonomous, reusable, air-launched hypersonic flight test platform in the U.S.”

Each fact on this page is attached to the sources that support it. Archived copies are linked when we keep one.