X-43A - NASA X-43A rockets to Mach 9.8 at Edwards

OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN—NASA’s B-52B launch aircraft cruises to a test range here carrying an X-43A hypersonic research aircraft attached to a Pegasus rocket Nov. 16. It was taken to launch altitude by the aircraft from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. About an hour later the Pegasus booster was released from the B-52 to accelerate the X-43A to its intended speed of Mach 10. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration photo by Carla Thomas)