Compared to the Space Shuttle or Apollo capsule, hypersonic boost-glide vehicles are designed to slip through the atmosphere without too much plasma build-up, however.
“We designed the vehicle to be relatively streamlined and slender, and relatively aerodynamically efficient,” says White.
The C-HGB, which was successfully test flown in 2011, 2017 and March 2020, has been able to communicate with ground stations, he says.
“All of our flight test vehicles had telemetry; measuring things on the vehicle and sending that information to ground stations that are put in place along the trajectory to monitor and take that data,” says White.