LOS ANGELES — An unmanned glider streaks over the Pacific at 20 times the speed of sound in video released Thursday by a U.S. defense research agency experimenting with technology that could give the military the ability to strike any part of the globe within an hour. The Aug. 11 test ended when a problem caused the Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle' safety system to force it down into the ocean, but the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says valuable data was collected in the nearly three minutes of free flight at about 13,000 mph (nearly 21,000 kph). The craft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California atop a rocket that carried it to the edge of space and then released it. The video was recorded aboard a tracking ship.
