The Missile Defense Agency’s satellites successfully tracked their first hypersonic weapons test flight this week. The satellites collected data after the launch but will continue assessing data over the coming weeks.
The satellites that tracked the flight were the two Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) satellites, which are part of the Space Development Agency’s missile tracking satellite constellation.
The Space Development Agency has a total of 10 missile tracking satellites in orbit currently that are intended to detect and observe hypersonic weapons.
The hypersonic weapons test flight that was tracked was launched from Wallops Island, Virginia using the Missile Defense Agency’s new Hypersonic Test Bed vehicle (HTB-1).
HTB-1 will serve as an affordable test bed for conducting hypersonic experiments and testing advanced hypersonic components. This test marked the beginning of its testing capabilities.
The successful tracking of the hypersonic test flight marks an achievement for the missile defense agencies’ hypersonic detection capabilities. However, the current limited number of satellites provides only limited tracking coverage globally.
Source: c4isrnet
