[Launch Alert] Peacekeeper Launch Announced

[kd6nrp at earthlink.net]

The Air Force has just announced the details regarding this month's
Peacekeeper launch. I believe that this will be the second to the last
Peacekeeper launch. The vehicle is being phased out of the inventory.
The Vandenberg AFB news release regarding this launch is appended
below.

Regards,

Brian Webb

PEACEKEEPER LAUNCH

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - An unarmed Peacekeeper
intercontinental ballistic missile is set to launch Wednesday during a
six-hour launch window beginning at 1:01 a.m.

The launch is a combined effort by the 30th Space Wing and the 576th
Flight Test Squadron here and the 90th Space Wing, F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo.
Members of the 576th FLTS are performing maintenance, launch and test
activities for this mission. Col. Frank Wolfe, 30th Space Wing vice
commander, is the spacelift commander, or final go-for-launch authority, for
this mission.

The Peacekeeper missile was randomly selected from operational
missiles at F.E. Warren and is part of the Force Development Evaluation
program, which is used routinely to verify the accuracy and reliability of
the ICBM force.

Using pressurized gas, the 70-foot long, 198,000-pound vehicle is
ejected 50 feet out of the launch facility before the first of four boosters
ignite.  The missile will travel approximately 4,800 miles toward the
Kwajalein Missile Range where 8 unarmed re-entry vehicles will land at a
predetermined target. 

The Air Force conducted its first successful test flight of the
Peacekeeper missile from Vandenberg June 17, 1983.  For more information
about the Peacekeeper missile, check out the fact sheet on line at
www.peterson.af.mil/hqafspc/ <http://www.peterson.af.mil/hqafspc/> .