All eyes are on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California today, where DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 unmanned aircraft is scheduled to launch into space at hypersonic speeds, as part of a critical test flight. Measuring just 12 feet in length, the HTV-2 maxes out at a speed of about 1300 miles per hour (22 times the speed of sound), theoretically allowing it to jet from New York to Los Angeles in just 12 minutes and to reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour. The main obstacle, however, has been transitioning from theory to practice. Du
