I did read somewhere (i thought it was on their website but can't find it now) that they wouldn't need ceramic tiles like the shuttle due to the high drag to weight ratio during re-entry. I assumed that this just meant they would be trying to slow down as much as possible before the heat built up too much. On the website it currently suggests the will use excess hydrogen to cool to the surfaces and dump in over board. If i find the source of the high drag to weight ratio i will post it here later

where are you getting the 5 minutes from? the article talks about 60s which is such a great achievement when you are going 50% slower. Meaning the temperatures that the plane/missile experience will be significantly lower.

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html

nasa have already achieved mach 9.6. Mach 6 should be a walk in the park

Yeah you can get a cubic inch for $9.99 on ebay already. So not only is this not news its a complete ripoff as well