Members: I have two questions about the following incident that I am sure some people on this list can answer. [An interceptor missile was recently launched from Kwajalein 21 minutes after its target, a modified Minuteman II intercontinental-range missile equipped with a mock warhead, roared toward the heavens from a launch pad 4,800 miles away at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. At 11:09 p.m. EDT, exactly the scheduled moment of collision between the interceptor and the warhead, an enormous white flash appeared at the planned impact point 144 miles above the earth's surface. Navigating by the stars and by information transmitted from a ground station on Kwajalein, the interceptor's 120-pound weapon known as a "kill vehicle," rammed the mock warhead. The force of impact [[[[obliterated]]]] the warhead, thus the term "hit-to-kill," as distinct from other approaches such as detonating an explosive in the flight path of the target.] My questions are as follows. (1) When this sort of thing happens, does it spray bits of material into orbit, adding to the array of debris that the shuttle and other objects may run into? (2) Would it produce a lot of visible ion trails as even the relatively small bits and pieces reenter the atmosphere? Tom Iowa USA More info. if interested: http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/bmdolink/html/bmdolink.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jul 15 2001 - 11:09:34 PDT