Rocket Blasts Off With Missile-Warning Satellite

fysdt sends this quote from a Reuters report: "An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday to put the first satellite of the Defense Department's new missile-warning system into orbit. Tucked inside the rocket's nosecone was the $1.3 billion Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) Geo-1 spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The satellite, the first of four scheduled for launch over the next five years, is intended to provide the US military with early notice of missile launches and other reconnaissance services. The $17.6 billion SBIRS constellation, which includes sensors on host satellites, will augment and eventually replace the military's Defense Support Program satellites, which have been operating since 1970. The satellites scour the planet for heat trails produced by flying rockets and missiles."

Comments

Now I get it

[93 Escort Wagon]

An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday

I occasionally see these stories and idly wonder (having grown up in the 60s and 70s) "when did they change Cape Kennedy back to Cape Canaveral"? I assumed it was recent since I've only noticed the "Cape Canaveral" references recently; but I never bothered to check.

Well, looks like it happened way back in 1973 - at the request of the residents. The facility retained the name "Kennedy Space Center" to honor JFK. I guess my childhood memories of the Apollo launch telecasts "live from Cape Kennedy" were so strong, I ignored anything I might've heard about the name changing back.

Actually, now that I think about it it - it probably had more to do with Barbara Eden and those sexy outfits. Major Nelson always went off to "Cape Kennedy", after all.

Re:It will be interesting

[hairyfeet]

Not to mention despite all the fancy electronics in the end it will come down to humans and whether or not they have any damned sense. I remember reading when the wall fell a couple of the "BTW did you know we came close to blowing your Yankee asses up?" articles, one where they came damned close to launching because the USA was doing a huge ePeen exercise with the Germans and the Russians thought it was a build up for launch, and on the second one of the commanders at one of their tracking stations actually detected what the computer thought was an ICBM headed to Moscow and despite orders refused to launch. He said 'It didn't make sense to me. The Americans would not just launch one or two birds, the sky would have been full. To launch only one or two birds would have been suicide" so he figured it was a glitch (turned out to be sunlight and clouds screwing with the detectors)

So in the end all we can do is hope the guy sitting there by the button has as much sense as that Russian commander. Because as any tech guy will tell you the fancier the system the more ways it can break horribly. Let us just hope they ain't basing their entire decision on whether to launch or not on these new fancy birds.