China and Russia have hypersonic missiles. This $13 billion startup wants the U.S. to catch up
Source: Fortune ·
In 2022, Bryon Hargis, Andrew Kreitz, and Sean Pitt—all previously SpaceX executives—cofounded Castelion to help close America’s hypersonics gap. The company’s now valued at $13 billion.
From the source
For the last couple of months, when someone asked what I was working on, I’d mention in passing “a hypersonics startup,” and almost always got stopped: Wait, roll that back. The startup is Castelion, based in Torrance, Calif. and working to produce and scale low-cost hypersonic missiles. The term “hypersonic” may have a sci-fi ring to it, but the technology is very real, and there are many reasons to pay attention. As I write at the top of the feature published this past weekend: The first thing to know about hypersonic missiles is that they’re air-rippingly fast. A hypersonic missile, definitionally, moves at least at Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound; one could cross the U.S. coast to coast in under 45 minutes. Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonics are maneuverable and unpredictable to watchers, with an uncanny ability to fly low, change course, and skirt radar. The second thing to know about hypersonics is that China and Russia have them, and the U.S. doesn’t—not really.…
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