May 14—One of the stars of eastern Kern County's aerospace industry notched an important success Saturday by completing a mid-air launch of a test vehicle that, if all continues to go well, will achieve hypersonic flight later this year.

Mojave-based Stratolaunch LLC announced its launch plane Roc — the world's largest aircraft, with a dual-fuselage and a wingspan of 385 feet — demonstrated it can cleanly and safely release the company's rocket-powered Talon-A test vehicle. The launch took place during a 4-hour, 8-minute flight out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in Lompoc.

"Today's test was exceptional," President and CEO Zachary Krevor said in a news release Saturday. "Our hardware and data collection systems performed as anticipated, and we now stand at the precipice of achieving hypersonic flight."

Stratolaunch's plan is to use the Roc to launch reusable Talon-A autonomous planes to carry customizable payloads for paying customers. The idea is to have Talon-As fly at more than five times the speed of sound, which is a capability in which the United States still lags behind Russia and China.

The company said Saturday's flight was the 11th for Roc and the second time Stratolaunch has flown out of Vandenberg. The Talon-A was released from Roc's center-wing pylon.

Stratolaunch said the test confirmed telemetry — the process of recording and transmitting readings from instrumentation — between the two vehicles and Vandenberg's communication systems, "assuring that back-up telemetry data collection will occur during future hypersonic flight tests."

The next big step is expected in late summer, when Stratolaunch plans to deploy a Roc ship to launch a Talon-A that will then fly at hypersonic speed.

"With this landmark test complete," Saturday's release said, "the team progresses toward its first hypersonic flight of (a Talon-A vehicle) in late summer 2023."

On April 1 the company announced successful completion of a third captive-carry flight of a Talon-A vehicle. That test, lasting five hours, marked the beginning of routine flights out of Vandenberg.