[Launch Alert] Minuteman III Launch

[Brian Webb]

                             LAUNCH ALERT

			            Brian Webb
		         Ventura County, California
		         E-mail: kd6nrp at earthlink.net
	         Web Site: http://www.spacearchive.info

				              2005 July 19 (Tuesday) 15:01 PDT
----------------------------------------------------------------------

                        MINUTEMAN III LAUNCH
                     Vandenberg AFB News Release

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – An unarmed Minuteman III
intercontinental ballistic missile is scheduled for launch from North
Vandenberg Thursday morning as part of a developmental test to
demonstrate the ability to integrate a Safety Enhanced Re-entry
Vehicle into the Minuteman III weapons system. The launch window is
from 1:01 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. PDT.

The missile will launch under the direction of the 576th Flight Test
Squadron here. Capt Kelvin Dumas, 576th FLTS, is the launch director.
The 576th FLTS commander, Lt Col S.L. Davis is the mission director.
Col Jack Weinstein, 30th Space Wing commander, is the spacelift
commander.

Members of the 576th FLTS have performed all maintenance activities to
include missile emplacement and installation of unique missile
tracking, telemetry and command destruct systems to collect test data
and meet safety requirements.  In addition, members of the 576th FLTS
Top Hand program are conducting all missile crew duties for this
launch.

The missile's single unarmed re-entry vehicle is expected to travel
approximately 4,200 miles in about 30 minutes, hitting a
pre-determined target at the Kwajalein Missile Range in the western
chain of the Marshall Islands. This test continues a long tradition of
ICBM test launches that serve to ensure a safe, secure and effective
weapon system that is critical to continued global stability.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

                   LAUNCH VIEWING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

For information on launch viewing and photography, refer to:

  www.spacearchive.info/vafbview.htm
  www.spacearchive.info/vafbphoto.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright © 2005 Brian Webb. All rights reserved. This newsletter may
be distributed in its entirety without restriction. Excerpts may be
not be reprinted or posted elsewhere without prior permission.