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US Military Blows Up Hypersonic Weapon After Failed Test Launch

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Photographer Scott Wight of Kodiak, Alaska, captured this photo of the explosions of the U.S. military's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon during a failed test launch from the Kodiak Launch Center on Aug. 25, 2014. The U.S. military is investigating the test fai
Photographer Scott Wight of Kodiak, Alaska, captured this photo of the explosions of the U.S. military's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon during a failed test launch from the Kodiak Launch Center on Aug. 25, 2014. The U.S. military is investigating the test failure. (Image credit: Scott Wight)

The U.S. Army launched a prototype hypersonic weapon test from Alaska on Monday (Aug. 25), only to destroy the superfast vehicle seconds later when something went wrong.

The Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, as it is called, blasted off from Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex just after 4 a.m. EDT (0800 GMT) on Monday, but was commanded to explode as a safety measure when an anomaly was detected in the test flight.

"The flight was terminated in the first four seconds," Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann told Space.com in an email. The weapon launched on a three-stage STARS solid rocket booster, she added.

Schumann said Monday's hypersonic weapon test is part of the Pentagon's Conventional Prompt Global Strike weapons technology development program. The program aims to develop and demonstrate promising weapons programs for potential uses on land and sea, she added. An investigation into the launch failure is now under way. [DARPA's Hypersonic HTV Bomber in Pictures]

In 2011, the U.S. Army launched a successful test of the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The test sent the prototype weapon 2,500 miles in 30 minutes. (Image credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Hypersonic flight is typically defined as traveling at speeds of at Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, or above. At sea level, the speed of sound is about 762 mph (1,226 km/h).

Photographer Scott Wight in Kodiak, Alaska, hoped to photograph Monday's launch with the Milky Way as a backdrop, only to capture a photo of the explosion instead.

"I think it was about a minute or so before the roar of the takeoff made it to us followed shortly after by the sound of the explosion," Wight said in a message to Space.com. "I didn't notice any shock wave although I've heard others say they felt something."

Monday's Advanced Hypersonic Weapon test was overseen by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Forces Strategic Command. The Army launched a successful test of the weapon in 2011 from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.

That 2011 test sent the prototype weapon across the Pacific Ocean to the Army's Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It traveled 2,500 miles in 30 minutes, according a U.S. Army statement released at the time.

This artist's illustration depicts DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle as it emerges from its rocket nose cone and prepares to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. (Image credit: DARPA)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched two test flights of an ultrafast bomber prototype called the Hypersonic Test Vehicle (HTV). The second HTV launch in 2011 reached a mind-blowing speed of Mach 20 before it losing control.Over the last few years, the U.S. military has launched several hypersonic weapon tests in the pursuit of superfast weapons delivery systems and futuristic bombers.

Last year, the U.S. Air Force conducted the fourth test flight of its air-launched X-51A Waverider scramjet vehicle, which reached a speed of Mach 5.1 before plunging into the Pacific Ocean as planned.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Space.com Editor-in-chief

Tariq is the editor-in-chief of Live Science's sister site Space.com. He joined the team in 2001 as a staff writer, and later editor, focusing on human spaceflight, exploration and space science. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times, covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University.