January 27, 2004 :: The Missile Defense Agency :: News
Yesterday’s test of a new booster rocket for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system was a success. The test, Integrated Flight Test-13b, began with an Orbital booster rocket lifting off from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, and then traveling to a simulated intercept point some 800 miles downrange and at an approximate altitude of 170 miles. No intercept was attempted, although a target missile and a kill vehicle were simulated. The successful test follows another held on January 9.
While this was the third test flight of the Orbital booster, it was the first in which the booster carried a mock kill vehicle. Orbital officials confirmed that all primary objectives for the launch were achieved, which included the second demonstration of the vehicle’s silo-launch capabilities, the verification of the vehicle’s design and flight characteristics while carrying a simulated kill vehicle, and further confirmation of the planned performance of its guidance, control and propulsion systems.
This test marked the first inclusion of the missile defense personnel within the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, for the purposes of sending of tracking information about the simulated target and relaying that to the kill vehicle system.
According to the MDA, several other ground and flight tests are planned for 2004, including at least two intercept tests. Ten interceptors are scheduled to be deployed at Ft. Greely, Alaska this year, as well as an additional four to six at Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California.
The three stage booster built by Orbital, owned by Boeing, is one of two being pursued by the MDA, the other booster being built by Lockheed. The Orbital boosters will apparently be those first deployed, beginning later this year. The two new boosters are seen as the more capable successors to the program’s former booster, a modified Minuteman ICBM.
Northrop Grumman has also issued a press release describing their participation in Monday’s successful test.
(Article)» MDA Booster Rocket Program press release, noting “dual-booster strategy” for rocket acquisition
» Orbital press release
» Jan. 9, 2003: Lockheed Booster Test
» Oct. 25, 2003: First missile defense brigade activated, in Colorado
» More stories on: Land-Based Systems, Technology, Testing - American
» Missile system details for: Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD)
