By Jack Moore
Federal News Radio

The Defense Department’s cutting-edge research agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, launched what is supposed to be the fastest plane ever today – the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2.

The launch took place at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. DARPA launched the unmanned vehicle from the back of a rocket.

If all goes as planned, the rocket is supposed to travel to the edge of space. Engineers on the ground below then detach the unmanned plane from the rocket and guide it back to Earth, where the craft is supposed to reach speeds of 13,000 mph – about 20 times the speed of sound – before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean some 4,000 miles away from the launch site.

The total flight time is estimated to be about 30 minutes.

Wired magazine notes Thursday’s launch as a “do-or-die” moment for the aircraft and the research agency’s project. DARPA launched the first iteration of the unmanned vehicle in April 2010. However, Wired reports that aircraft disappeared nine minutes into its flight and was never recovered.

The initial rocket launch was not webcast, as the agency has done in the past for other launches. However, the agency is tracking the plane’s flight path on Twitter from @DARPA_News.

Follow the launch and what the Twittersphere is saying via the live tweets below.

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