[Launch Alert] Wednesday Vandenberg Launch

Mon Sep 12 22:41:45 EDT 2005

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

				          2005 September 12 (Monday) 19:35 PDT
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                     WEDNESDAY VANDENBERG LAUNCH

A Minuteman ICBM carrying one unarmed warhead is scheduled for launch
from Vandenberg AFB this Wednesday, September 14. The Minuteman III is
slated to lift-off from a silo at north Vandenberg at 01:01 PDT, the
start of a six-hour launch window.

Unlike most Minuteman launches, the launch command for this flight
will be issued from an E-6B aircraft.

Following lift-off, the Minuteman will head west with the powered
portion of the flight lasting more than three minutes. The
reentry vehicle (warhead) will fly an arc-shaped trajectory and cover
about 4,800 statute miles before plunging back into the atmosphere
and arriving at its target at Kwajalein.

Weather permitting, the launch should be visible to the naked eye for
at least 300 statute miles. Sharp-eyed observers who know exactly
where to look may be able to see the event from as far away as central
Arizona, southwest Utah, and Reno.

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                   MINUTEMAN III LAUNCH SCHEDULED
                     Vandenberg AFB News Release

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – An unarmed Minuteman III
intercontinental ballistic missile is scheduled to launch from North
Vandenberg Wednesday morning. The six-hour launch window is from 1:01
to 7:01 a.m. PST*. The mission tests the reliability and accuracy of
the weapon system.

The launch is a team effort by members of the 30th Space Wing and the
576th Flight Test Squadron here and the 91st Space Wing from Minot
AFB, N.D. The task force from the 91st SW, led by Capt. Carl
Bottolfson, will launch the missile under the direction of the 576th
FLTS. Capt. Rasheem Wright, 576th FLTS, is the launch director. The
576th FLTS falls under the 595th Space Group which reports to the
Space Warfare Center at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo.

The mission director is Lt. Col. Stephen Davis, 576th FLTS commander.
The spacelift commander is Col. Jack Weinstein, 30th Space Wing
commander.

Members of the 576th FLTS performed 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.

The missile’s unarmed re-entry vehicle is expected to travel
approximately 4,200 miles in about 30 minutes, hitting a
pre-determined target at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein
Atoll in the western chain of the Marshall Islands.

Designated Glory Trip 189GM, this operational test launch continues a
long history of Western Range launches used to verify, validate and
improve the capability of the nation’s ICBM force--a key component to
continued global stability.

* This should say "PDT" - Editor

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