U.S. missile test explodes 11 seconds after launch
A test flight of a Minotaur missile with an updated warhead delivery system exploded 11 seconds after liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 6th.
Despite a news release saying the Minotaur II+ test would take place Thursday morning from the northern section of the base, the launch occurred the night before, at 11:01 p.m.
More than an hour after liftoff, Vandenberg officials confirmed the booster had exploded approximately 11 seconds after launching from Test Pad 01. There were no injuries in the explosion and the debris was contained to the immediate vicinity of the launch pad, Vandenberg officials said in a statement released early Thursday.
The military would not explain the change in launch time, nor provide much information about the explosion. According to the article, it is even possible that the contradiction between the announced launch time and when it actually occurred was because “military officials failed to account for the one-hour time difference between California and the home of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.”
Seems utterly absurd, but completely possible considering the general overall incompetence of our modern federal government.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
A test flight of a Minotaur missile with an updated warhead delivery system exploded 11 seconds after liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 6th.
Despite a news release saying the Minotaur II+ test would take place Thursday morning from the northern section of the base, the launch occurred the night before, at 11:01 p.m.
More than an hour after liftoff, Vandenberg officials confirmed the booster had exploded approximately 11 seconds after launching from Test Pad 01. There were no injuries in the explosion and the debris was contained to the immediate vicinity of the launch pad, Vandenberg officials said in a statement released early Thursday.
The military would not explain the change in launch time, nor provide much information about the explosion. According to the article, it is even possible that the contradiction between the announced launch time and when it actually occurred was because “military officials failed to account for the one-hour time difference between California and the home of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.”
Seems utterly absurd, but completely possible considering the general overall incompetence of our modern federal government.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
‘Failed’, and ‘nuclear’, in the same sentence makes me nervous.
These ARE Minuteman bits, after all.
One of the first “lessons learned” I tell my people is that *everything* runs on Zulu (GMT) time, nothing else can be used.
There is no limit on the size of solids, by the way
“By 1966, NASA officials were looking ahead already to sizes as large as 600 inches, noting that “there is no fundamental reason to expect that motors 50 feet in diameter could not be made” [Astronautics & Aeronautics, January 1966, p. 33; NASA budget data, February 1970].”
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=35996.msg1301440#msg1301440