This is the inquiry with me, Tania Beckett, one question, four expert witnesses, and an answer.

In the summer in China, a mystery object was launched high above the earth.

It was travelling tremendously fast. But what marked this object out?

Wasn't just the speed it was going, but the way it could maneuver through the air.

Then, after literally hurtling its way all around the globe, it landed,

reportedly 40 kilometres away from its target.

The Chinese government has claimed this object was a reusable spacecraft on a routine test mission.

But others are not so sure, and have suggested that in fact it was a new type of hypersonic missile.

These weapons that travel at many times the speed of sound

are the latest arms race between China, Russia, and America.

So this week on the inquiry, we're asking,

what are hypersonic missiles, and why do they matter?

Part 1. Rocket Science

Our first expert witness is a political scientist who worked for several years at Austria's

Ministry of Defence. His task is to give us a short and hopefully not too complicated

history of missiles. My name is Gustav Presser. I work for the European Council for

invulations in the Berlin office. The practice of propelling objects at enemy targets dates back

almost as far as warfare itself. Think of giant catapults that could fire rocks, for example,

or huge cannons firing iron balls at the enemy. This type of warfare entered the modern age when

people realised you could fire things further if you attached an engine to them. And this

realisation was the birth of the missile. Though it was several decades before the technology

became viable for use in warfare, key advances were made by Germany in the 1930s.

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