Posted on 03/09/2007 11:01:26 AM PST by RDTF
Lt. General Henry “Trey” Obering, Missile Defense Agency director, announced today the successful completion of an important radar data collection flight test for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense element. The test was conducted on March 5 and involved the launch of a shortrange target missile from an aircraft over the Pacific Ocean.
The short-range target missile was launched at approximately 2:30 p.m. Hawaii Time (8:30 p.m. EST) from a U.S. Air Force C-17A transport aircraft approximately 400 miles west of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. The target missile was extracted from the rear of the C-17A aircraft by parachute. The missile’s rocket motor then ignited, sending it on a planned trajectory over the Pacific Ocean.
The target missile’s flight was successfully tracked by the THAAD radar, now designated as Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance, or AN/TPY-2. Preliminary indications are that all radar data collection objectives were met.
(Excerpt) Read more at mda.mil ...
Beautiful.
How do photos of a shuttle launch establish that missile defense can work?
Sure, they're easy to see, but it doesn't immediately follow that they're easy to hit or otherwise do something about. Furthermore, the shuttle is a lot bigger than ICBMs are, and the shuttle, having humans aboard, accelerates a lot more slowly as well. I've seen a video of an ICBM launch, and that thing really moved! It was from here to GONE in a few seconds. Not necessarily easy to hit, even if you can see it.
GRRRRRRRRRREAT NEWS! Thanks for posting.
Excellent!
Thanks for these GREAT pictures of a Shuttle launch from space!
For 14 years, I worked with lidars that would track the brightness of a pulse of light as it traveled away from the laser. Even at a slow sampling frequency of 40 MHz, a pulse of light could be tracked every 7.5 meters.
Compared to a pulse of light traveling at 186,000 miles per second, and ICBM is almost standing still when tracked with today's electronics.
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=3183
Internet Hoax.
Those photos were NOT taken from the ISS, or any orbital platform.
They were taken from a NASA RB-57 aircraft at an altitude of about 10-12 miles, NOT 220 miles.
Still a 1000 K exhaust plume really stands out aganst a 300 K Earth, and even more so against a 3 K space background.
Ack! 10,000 Kelvin
I think you mean a WB-57
I understand that's the current designation; but before NASA got their hands on them, they used be designated RB-47, AFAIK.
yep, I am very familiar with it
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