Edwards Team Performs Second Test of Small Launch Vehicle

US Air Force, EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE: A 418th Flight Test Squadron team performed the second in a series of tests June 14 by airdropping a 65-foot, 65,000-pound mockup of a booster rocket from a C-17 Globemaster III over the Edwards precision impact range area. 
 
The drop, performed at 29,500 feet above sea level, was part of a project called Falcon Small Launch Vehicle, a joint venture between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force, designed to develop a new method for putting satellites into low-earth orbit. 
 
Lt. Col. Dan Fritz, director of operations for the 418th FTS, and the project pilot for the tests, said that in addition to the testing of the Falcon SLV system, the squadron is expanding the envelope of the C-17