
The Physics and Hype of Hypersonic Weapons
These novel missiles cannot live up to the grand promises made on their behalf, aerodynamics shows
David Wright is a research affiliate at the Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He formerly co-directed the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Credit: Nick Higgins
These novel missiles cannot live up to the grand promises made on their behalf, aerodynamics shows
Missiles designed to destroy incoming nuclear warheads fail frequently in tests and could increase global risk of mass destruction
Our planet's littered orbital environs urgently need a concerted cleanup effort
Early in the Space Age, little thought was given to objects left in orbit as part of satellite launches. But as the number of those objects has grown, at first steadily and then very rapidly, through the 50-plus years since the launch of Sputnik, concerns about the polluted orbital sphere have grown accordingly...
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