NASA backs studies to boost hypersonic flight testing

by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 02, 2026

NASA is preparing for a new phase in hypersonic aviation by funding industry studies aimed at expanding flight test capabilities for reusable airbreathing vehicles that can cruise at several times the speed of sound.

The agency has awarded short term study contracts to SpaceWorks Enterprises of Atlanta, Georgia, and Stratolaunch of Mojave, California, to examine how existing platforms could be adapted to conduct frequent and affordable hypersonic flight experiments. The work is managed under NASA's Hypersonic Technology Project within the Advanced Air Vehicles Program.

While rockets routinely reach hypersonic speeds by carrying their own oxidizer to burn fuel, NASA is focusing on airbreathing hypersonic aircraft that ingest atmospheric air during flight instead of relying on onboard oxygen supplies. This approach supports longer duration cruise at hypersonic speeds and aligns with potential future commercial uses where reusability and operational tempo are critical.

The Hypersonic Technology Project is responding to growing commercial interest by looking for ways to bridge the gap between traditional ground testing and full scale hypersonic flight demonstrations. Ground facilities can replicate extreme temperatures and pressures for short durations, but they cannot easily reproduce the combination of long duration, real world atmospheric conditions and repeated flight cycles that industry needs to mature operational concepts.

In August, NASA selected SpaceWorks and Stratolaunch to carry out six month studies that will define how their current vehicles could be modified or used to support this kind of testing. SpaceWorks received 500,000 dollars to investigate options using its X 60 platform, while Stratolaunch was awarded 1.2 million dollars to analyze opportunities with its Talon A system.

The X 60 is a small rocket based flight research platform designed to be launched from an aircraft and reach relevant flight regimes for high speed experimentation. In the new study, SpaceWorks will examine how that platform could support reusable, high cadence test operations that would be useful to both NASA and commercial partners interested in hypersonic technologies.

Stratolaunch's Talon A is a reusable hypersonic test vehicle that can be air launched from the company's large carrier aircraft, enabling operations over a variety of test ranges without relying on fixed ground launch infrastructure. The NASA study funding will help the company and the agency explore how Talon A missions could be configured to provide the kind of repeatable flight opportunities needed to advance airbreathing hypersonic systems.

"With these awards, NASA will collaborate with the commercial hypersonics industry to identify new ways to evaluate technologies through flight tests while we address the challenges of reusable, routine, airbreathing, hypersonic flight," said Dr. Nateri Madavan, director of NASA's Advanced Air Vehicles Program. The goal is to leverage industry capabilities while guiding them toward test conditions that match NASA's long term research objectives.

The two studies will feed into a broader NASA effort to define what an integrated hypersonic test campaign should look like once candidate platforms are available. Through the contracts, NASA wants industry to help describe the performance envelopes, payload accommodations, flight rates and logistical support needed for future test services that can be used by government and commercial customers.

Insights from the work with SpaceWorks and Stratolaunch may also support planning for a potential future NASA initiative called Making Advancements in Commercial Hypersonics, or MACH. That project, if pursued, would focus on enabling commercial hypersonic vehicles by developing infrastructure such as cost models, schedule frameworks, and other planning tools needed to bring a flight test capability from concept to routine operation.

The Hypersonic Technology Project is part of NASA's broader aeronautics portfolio that targets revolutionary advances in air transportation, including supersonic and hypersonic flight. By concentrating on fundamental airbreathing hypersonic technologies and partnering with companies that already operate or are developing relevant vehicles, NASA aims to reduce technical and economic barriers to regular hypersonic flight testing.

Through these new awards and related efforts, the agency intends to help establish a pathway from experimental concepts to practical systems that might eventually support commercial travel, rapid cargo delivery, or other applications requiring sustained flight at very high speeds. The resulting knowledge is expected to inform not only vehicle design, but also the operational frameworks, safety considerations and regulatory discussions that will shape hypersonic aviation in the coming decades.