Sierra Space and Radian are developing spaceplanes that fly at hypersonic speeds, but are able to head into Low Earth Orbit ...

This is notable, because supersonic flights that make sonic booms over populated areas in the U.S. are prohibited. Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events ...

Those patterns seen in the plume are known as shock diamonds—standing wave patterns formed by the compression and expansion of exhaust gases as they exit a rocket nozzle at supersonic speeds.

and the plane is the "first civil supersonic jet made in America." The sound barrier was broken for the first time in 1947, when Air Force pilot Capt. Chuck Yeager flew a rocket-propelled ...