BOLT-1B hypersonic experiment soars and collects vital data

The Boundary Layer Transition 1B (BOLT-1B) experiment, a joint research project of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), blasted off from Andøya Space in Norway aboard a sounding rocket on Sept. 2. The experiment traveled over the Norwegian Sea at Mach 7.2 and provided a stream of important data on the physics of airflow at hypersonic speeds.