Sat, Feb 08, 2003
Demonstration of Orbital Interceptor Concept Deemed
"Success"
Orbital Sciences Corporation reports it
successfully launched the first prototype of an interceptor boost
vehicle the company hopes to manufacture for the U.S. Missile
Defense Agency's (MDA) Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system
under a contract from The Boeing Company. In a mission that
originated from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Orbital's
GMD boost vehicle was launched Friday at 4:00 p.m. (EST). It flew a
ballistic trajectory over the Pacific Ocean, reaching an altitude
of approximately 1,125 miles and traveling about 3,500 miles down
range from the launch site.
After an taking an initial look at analysis of the data
collected from the mission, Orbital confirmed that all the primary
objectives for the first launch of the GMD boost vehicle had been
achieved. These included the verification of the vehicle design and
flight characteristics, the gathering of flight data through
comprehensive onboard instrumentation, and the confirmation of the
expected performance of the propulsion system.
"I would like to commend the joint Boeing/Orbital team and
our key suppliers for maintaining an extremely aggressive schedule
to design, produce, test and deliver a new boost vehicle for the
Missile Defense Agency in just 13 months, from the start of the
contract to today's successful launch," said Ron Grabe,
Executive Vice President and General Manager of Orbital's Launch
Systems Group.
The government contract to develop, manufacturing and test
interceptor boost vehicles for MDA's GMD system is worth almost $1
billion, including firm and optional orders. The firm portion of
the company's contract, awarded in early 2002, is valued at
approximately $450 million and extends through 2007. Orbital's GMD
boost vehicle is a three-stage system based on flight-proven
hardware that has flown over 40 times on missions carried out by
the company's Pegasus®, Taurus® and Minotaur® space
launch vehicles.
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