DARPA has just awarded Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works a $40.8 million contract to build two HTV-2 hypersonic technology vehicles to be flight-tested in 2009 under the Falcon programme. This gives me a good excuse to update my Short Guide to Hypersonics Programmes.
The HTV-2 is an unpowered, unmanned, expendable vehicle to demonstrate high lift/drag aerodynamics and high-temperature materials for sustained hypersonic cruise, and is intended a stepping stone to the powered, reusable HTV-3X, aka Blackswift.