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| Science & Technology |
| Air Force Launches Suborbital Ballistic Missile In Weapons Test |
| 2012-01-12 |
| Excerpt: Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles have a range of more than 6,000 miles (9,656 km) and can travel at speeds of up to Mach 23 (15,000 mph or 24,000 kph) and reach heights of up to 700 miles (1,120 km) above Earth. The weapons can reach altitudes higher than the International Space Station, which orbits Earth at an altitude of about 220 miles (354 km), when they hit the peak of their flight trajectories. Hmmmmm....verrrrrrry interesting..... |
| Posted by:Uncle Phester |
| #10 Muggsy, If they weren't, our ASAT weapons would be much further along.... |
| Posted by: Mike Ramsey 2012-01-12 18:36 |
| #9 Define "weapon". Only WMD are banned. Rods from God would be legal since it is "conventional". |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2012-01-12 18:35 |
| #8 Orbital weapons are banned by treaty. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2012-01-12 18:05 |
| #7 Muggsy and Mike: OK, not so interesting.....<sigh> ;-> |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2012-01-12 18:01 |
| #6 I guess it would then be called an orbital weapon. :-) Apollo and the space shuttle were not ICBMs either. I will grant you that the Mercury spacecraft did ride on top of a modified Redstone ICBM booster. But both Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4 were suborbital shots. |
| Posted by: Mike Ramsey 2012-01-12 16:51 |
| #5 A non-suborbital, could go into orbit and circle around until given orders to deorbit, dropping on a target with minimal warning. Then your only problem is if something breaks in the harsh environment up there. I'm sure we have some treaties (or used to) that outlawed that sort of thing during the cold war. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2012-01-12 14:45 |
| #4 All ICBMs are suborbital otherwise, what would be the point? The "Ballistic" part means that the missile follows a parabolic path once the engines cut off. So Muggsy, I agree. |
| Posted by: Mike Ramsey 2012-01-12 13:55 |
| #3 Uh, they'd be Multiple Independently Targetable, since they would be going after sats, and therefor not doing any reentry, but you get the idea... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2012-01-12 13:43 |
| #2 Could be a nice launch platform for MIRV'ed kinetic kill vehicles or an SM-3 derivative that can reach out even further. That'd be fun to watch... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2012-01-12 13:40 |
| #1 SOP. Pull one out and launch it from V-berg. Nothing to see here. |
| Posted by: Muggsy Johnson7466 2012-01-12 01:19 |