[Launch Alert] Interceptor Launched

Fri Sep 1 21:26:09 EDT 2006

                             LAUNCH ALERT

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

				           2006 September 1 (Friday) 18:12 PDT
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       VANDENBERG SUPPORTS SUCCESSFUL MISSILE DEFENSE EXERCISE
                          AND FLIGHT TEST

                    Vandenberg AFB News Release
                          2006 September 1

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. – A Missile Defense Agency (MDA)
interceptor missile successfully launched at 10:39 am PDT (1:39 pm
EDT) from the Ronald W. Reagan Missile Defense Site, here. For this
exercise, a threat-representative target missile was launched from the
Kodiak Launch Complex, Kodiak, Alaska.

“The entire wing was mobilized for this launch,” said Colonel Jack
Weinstein, Commander 30th Space Wing and spacelift commander for
today’s launch. “This mission was a huge launch for Vandenberg Air
Force Base and our team performed flawlessly.”

Air Force Lieutenant General Henry “Trey” Obering III, MDA director,
announced the MDA successfully completed an important exercise and
flight test involving the launch of an improved ground-based
interceptor missile designed to protect the United States against a
limited long-range ballistic missile attack. The flight test results
will help to further improve and refine the performance of numerous
Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) elements that will be used to
provide a defense against the type of long-range ballistic missile
that could be used to attack an American city with a weapon of mass
destruction.

The exercise was designed to evaluate the performance of several
elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS), and mission
objectives included demonstrating the ability of the Upgraded Early
Warning Radar at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., to acquire, track and
report the target warhead, and also to assess the performance of the
interceptor missile’s rocket motor system and exoatmospheric kill
vehicle, which is the component that collides directly with a target
warhead in space to perform a “hit to kill” intercept using only the
force of the collision to totally destroy the target warhead. Initial
indications are that the rocket motor system and kill vehicle
performed as designed. Program officials will evaluate system
performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the
test. Although not a primary objective for the data collection flight
test, an intercept of the target warhead was achieved.

The test also successfully exercised a wide variety of components and
subcomponents as part of the evaluation of system performance,
including improved missile silo support equipment, booster/kill
vehicle separation, kill vehicle sensor cooling, kill vehicle
orientation and positioning and several more.

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system currently has interceptor
missiles deployed at Ft. Greely, Alaska, and at Vandenberg AFB, Calif.
Other components of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense include the
upgraded Cobra Dane radar in the Aleutian Island chain of Alaska and
the upgraded early warning radar at Beale AFB, Calif. A forward
deployed air-transportable X-band radar is currently stationed in
Japan, and several U.S. Navy Aegis-class cruisers and destroyers with
the advanced SPY-1 radar have been modified for integration into the
command control, battle management and communication element of the
ground-based interceptor system. The new Sea Based X-band radar
mounted aboard a large sea-going platform will be integrated into the
system later this year, and for this exercise it was used to track the
target missile as part of its on-going radar calibration process.

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			           TIME FORMAT

All times in this newsletter are given in Pacific Time using a 24-hour
format based on military time. Under this system, regular time is
expressed as follows:
                                            24-hour
		            Regular Time        Format
                    ---------------------   -------
		        12:00 a.m. (midnight)    00:00
		        6:00  a.m.		   06:00
		        12:00 p.m. (noon)        12:00
                    6:00  p.m.               18:00

No distinction is made between Pacific Standard Time and Pacific
Daylight Time.

For assistance in converting military time to regular time, go to:

	http://www.spacearchive.info/military.htm

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