10 December 2002
First night interceptor test planned
By Janene Scully
Santa Maria TImes

The modified Minuteman 2 missile launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base is planned for 12:01 a.m., but the window will remain open until 3:59 a.m.

Launch weather officers forecast a 40 percent likelihood conditions early Wednesday will prevent liftoff. If the launch is delayed 24 hours conditions worsen to 60 percent, with clouds among the concerns.

The Vandenberg weapon, modified by Orbital Sciences Corp. will fly from an underground silo on the northern portion of the base.

Decoys and the dummy warhead on the Vandenberg weapon will go up against a prototype interceptor launched on another modified missile from the Kwajalein Missile Range, 4,200 miles from the Central Coast.

The second weapon will launch about 20 minutes after Vandenberg's missile blasts off. Ten minutes later, the small interceptor should smash into the mock warhead approximately 140 miles above the central Pacific Ocean.

Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a Missile Defense Agency spokesman, said the night-time launch for the inceptor provides "another dose of operational realism" for the tests, which have become progressively more difficult.

The $100 million test is part of the Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense program to protect against limited, long-range missile attacks.
Critics say the program is too costly, won't work and will launch a new global arms race.

So far, the Pentagon has conducted seven previous intercept tests since Oct. 3, 1999, racking up five successes and two flops.

Staff writer Janene Scully can be reached by e-mail at janscully@pulitzer.net