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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."
I think you'll find - in this Military Industrial Complex age - it's as follows:
Define the steps (Profit)
Step 1: Put missile detectors in space (Profit)
Step 2: Put missiles in space. (Profit)
Step 3: ??? (Profit)
Step 4: Profit. (Profit)
Step 5. Overrun original budgets (Profit)
this game costs $1.3B, Lockheed wins, and you always lose.
Ready, set, go.
Oops. We have to cut teachers' pay again.
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.
#DeleteChrome
Not if you're protected by your trusty tin foil hat.
A rocket is a kind of engine. A missile is something thrown. Most missiles have rocket engines and are often called rockets, but a steel rod thrown by a crossbow is also a missile.
In common use, a rocket used as a weapon is called a missile, even if the engine is still firing when it impacts
The Atlas 5 has never been man-rated. But it could be done.
A rocket can be anything driven by a non-air-breathing reaction engine. These objects can range in size from a bottle rocket to a Saturn 5 (or larger).
A missile is typically an unmanned weapon that travels through air or space that is directed to a target, though common usage often excludes projectiles launched from guns and unguided rockets bearing warheads. There are two broad types of modern missiles, guided and ballistic. Guided missiles use aerodynamic surfaces to adjust the course of the missile between launch and arrival at target, these can be either air-breathing or rocket propelled. Ballistic missiles are guided by some sort of thrust vectoring while the motors are burning and unguided after burnout.
A rocket that is used to place satellites in orbit is often called a booster or launcher. The Atlas series were originally designed as InterContinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), but the later versions were strictly intended as boosters.
A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
Using money to kill people vs. using it for welfare.
I know what I prefer.
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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.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
It won't be affected by commercial launches, USAF and other intelligence agencies looking out for missile and rocket launches generally know where and when commercial and research launches are.
So if a rocket is launched from New Mexico or Kodiak or Baikonur, even in much higher volume, it's not going to cause trouble.
Now if a launch happens from Musudan-ri, its going to raise an alarm.
ICBMs are not suborbital, an ICBM generally goes up to about 800-1100 miles at it's apogee.
The war machine is only taking 4% of the yearly GDP and that ranks 28th on the list of countries comparing GDP against military expenditures. I'm not saying that is a good or bad thing I just think you need to look at the big picture now and then.