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NASA Meatball X-43A Photo Collection banner
 
X-43A

NASA's B-52B launch aircraft takes off carrying the third X-43A hypersonic research vehicle attached to a modified Pegasus rocket, on November 16, 2004.
 
Photo Number: ED04-0320-16
Photo Date: November 16, 2004
 
Formats: 640x596 JPEG Image (207 KBytes)
1280x1192 JPEG Image (717 KBytes)
3000x2794 JPEG Image (3298 KBytes)
 
Photo
Description:		 The third X-43A hypersonic research aircraft and its modified Pegasus booster rocket left the runway, carried aloft by NASA's B-52B launch aircraft from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on November 16, 2004. About an hour later the Pegasus booster was launched from the B-52 to accelerate the X-43A to its intended speed of Mach 10.
 
Project
Description:		 The high-risk, high-payoff X-43A flights are the first actual flight tests of an aircraft powered by a scramjet engine capable of operating at hypersonic speeds (above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound). The X-43A is powered by a revolutionary air-breathing supersonic-combustion ramjet or "scramjet" engine.
 
NASA Photo by: Tom Tschida
 
Keywords: X-43A, X-43, Hyper-X, mach 10, vehicle 3, #3 hypersonic, B-52, B-52B, mothership, scramjet, Pegasus booster rocket, takeoff
 
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Last Modified: November 16, 2004
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