RE: Visibility of Minuteman Launch Wednesday.

From: Brian Webb (kd6nrp@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Sep 13 2004 - 23:47:08 EDT

  • Next message: Jim Scotti: "Re: Visibility of Minuteman Launch Wednesday." 

    Hi Rich:

Here are the flight events for Minuteman III test launches from Vandenberg:

                     MINUTEMAN III FLIGHT EVENTS
                                                         Downrange
Time                                      Altitude	   Distance
mm:ss                Event                  (NM)	     (NM)
-----       -----------------------       --------       ---------
00:00       Stage 1 ignition                  0               0
01:01       Stage 2 ignition                 16              18
02:06       Stage 3 ignition                 49             120
03:05       Stage 3 separation              123             210

The boost phase ends while the vehicle is faily low in altitude and close to
California.  I don't think you'll be able to see that.

It's possible that there are some small engine firings later in flight to
send the warheads on the right paths. Theoretically, if you had excellent
optical equipment and knew exactly where to look, you might be able to see
the small firings and perhaps some missile debris moving downrange.

At some point in the near future, I plan to publish a Minuteman III launch
visibility footprint map at:

	http://www.spacearchive.info/vafbview.htm

Regards,

Brian W.


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