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| Missile defence shield test fails | |
| 2004-12-15 | |
The first test in almost two years of the planned multi-billion dollar US anti-missile shield has failed. The Pentagon said an interceptor missile did not take off and was automatically shut down on its launch pad in the central Pacific. A target missile carrying a mock warhead had been fired 16 minutes earlier from Kodiak Island in Alaska. The Pentagon is spending $10bn a year on the missile system, which was meant to be in operation by the end of 2004. The Missile Defence Agency said an "unknown anomaly" was to blame for the system shutting down.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 Thanks, Michael. See? You've been read. I listened to about 90 seconds of some NPR reporting droning about the failure this afternoon, before turning off the radio in disgust. Even I knew, before reading this thread, that its much better to test and fix the errors, than hope everything goes right during the first emergency. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-12-15 11:49:25 PM |
| #11 Mr. Mendiola, many thanks for your brevity. But as a courtesy for your readers, would you kindly include a glossary with your comments? - The Retired Editor |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-12-15 11:43:47 PM |
| #10 Work-in-Progress is right - however, MISSLE INTERCEPTORS is only the end game, and NOT even GMD/NMD real asset or focii SPACE-/GROUND-SURFACE BASED HE LASERS and other super hi-tech toys for boyz. * Hyper-tekky toys for, and from, Hyper-power America and our Allies. The Commies know it - and now, boys and girls, you know another reason why the Communist Clintons and their cabal are still around, working to influence and control national politics and to destabilize America for Socialism and OWG! |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2004-12-15 9:05:19 PM |
| #9 Ok, now I can get this off my chest as I am home from work. Unfortunately it is late in the day and no one will ever see this post. Today's test was a ripping success. It was the test of a very large system, much bigger than most folks realize or dream. In this very large system a very great many things must work. They all did. Well. They need to in order to come up with a valid firing solution. The system did that, woke up an interceptor missile and told it what to do. The interceptor was just fine with that. In the second or so before launch the missile detected an internal problem and stood down. That is just what it was supposed to do. Even this was right thing to do. It did not take off and fly improperly; it did not blow up, it stood down. Exactly what it was supposed to do. The test was a success. I grant you that the out come was not what was hoped but everything worked as expected and as it was supposed to under the circumstances. You say but we did not shoot down the target. Consider this. We have done so in the past so we know we can do it. If we have a vaild incoming do you think we would task only one missile? No. More than one. If you get up in the morning and your car does not start do you assume the same for your neighbor's? Or all cars in the world? Of course not. The second interceptor would have flown the mission. So lay off the govenment and the contractors and the jokes in piss poor taste. This system is valid and there are a lot of people who have worked really really hard to get it to that point. Before you declare failure understand what you are talking about. God willing we will never have to use it, but if we do fall down on you knees and thank the Lord we have it. Sorry. |
| Posted by: Michael 2004-12-15 8:49:37 PM |
| #8 The government will throw a couple hundred million more at the contractor, the contractor's line worker will walk out with a "Green" flat tip, not the previously used "Red" flat tip screwdriver, turn it a few times, and she's off! Same shite different contract. |
| Posted by: 98zulu 2004-12-15 6:34:39 PM |
| #7 DB: They did light the ACME fuse, but it sputtered out. Their chief failure analyst, a Mr. Coyote, is going out to physically inspect the rocket now. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-12-15 2:11:01 PM |
| #6 Dopey me. Forgot the e-mail. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2004-12-15 1:39:07 PM |
| #5 PS. I have a great picture to go along with this but I can't post pictures. Maybe I could e-mail it to one of you. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2004-12-15 1:36:54 PM |
| #4 Somebody forgot to light the fuse. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2004-12-15 1:33:07 PM |
| #3 "Best "failure" possible -- the interceptor missile wasn't wasted" Granted that not "burning" an interceptor is a good thing, but the real reason a ground failure the "best failure" is that you still have the part that failed availible to examine in detail. Bottom line: much will be learned about the new booster from an event that was designed to learn about the new missile booster. |
| Posted by: Dave 2004-12-15 10:56:42 AM |
| #2 Beeb's editors are slacking - they left out the "W00t!" that was supposed to go at the end of the headline. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-12-15 9:48:54 AM |
| #1 Best "failure" possible -- the interceptor missile wasn't wasted. This is a work in progress and I'm not concerned about the "failure" -- you learn more from failures than successes. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-12-15 9:41:31 AM |