Vandenberg Launch Complex 576
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Vandenberg Launch Complex 576
Launch Complex 576 is a group of rocket launch pads at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The pads were used from 1959 until 1971 to launch SM-65 Atlas missiles. The site was also known as Complex ABRES. Pads in Area 576 include 576A-1, 576A-2 and 576A-3, 576B-1, 576B-2 and 576B-3, 576-C, 576-D, 576-E, OSTF-1 and OSTF-2. The first operational launch of an Atlas missile by the Strategic Air Command was conducted from 576A-2 by the 576th Strategic Missile Squadron on 9 September 1959. It impacted away, near Wake Island. The first Atlas F launch at Vandenberg took place from 576-E on 1 August 1962. Orbital Sciences Corporation now launches their Taurus rockets from 576-E.Federal Register /Vol. 73, No. 245 / Friday, 19 December 2008 Proposed Rules page 77579 The LC 576E is also a candidate site for launches of Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) boosters. The USAF and Missile Defense Agency anticipate a minimum of three KEI launches per year from 2009 to at least 2012. 576A The fi ...
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Taurus Rocket
Minotaur-C (''Minotaur Commercial''), formerly known as Taurus or Taurus XL, is a four stage solid fueled launch vehicle built in the United States by Orbital Sciences (now Northrop Grumman) and launched from SLC-576E at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. It is based on the air-launched Pegasus rocket from the same manufacturer, utilizing a "zeroth stage" in place of an airplane. The Minotaur-C is able to carry a maximum payload of around 1458 kg into a low Earth orbit (LEO). First launched in 1994, it has successfully completed seven out of a total of ten military and commercial missions. Three of four launches between 2001 and 2011 ended in failure, including the 24 February 2009 launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission and the 4 March 2011 launch of the Glory mission, which resulted in losses totalling US$700 million for NASA (excluding the cost of the rockets themselves). The Taurus launch vehicle was subsequently rebranded in 2014 as Minotaur-C, which incorp ...
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Kinetic Energy Interceptor
The Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) was a planned U.S. missile defense program whose goal was to design, develop, and deploy kinetic energy-based, mobile, ground and sea-launched missiles that could intercept and destroy enemy ballistic missiles during their boost, ascent and midcourse phases of flight. The KEI consisted of the Interceptor Component (kinetic projectile), the Mobile Launcher Component, and the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) component. On 7 May 2009, the KEI program was canceled due primarily to financial reasons. First stage rocket motor tests There were five first-stage rocket motor tests planned to be carried out by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) in Promontory, Utah. The second test firing of a KEI first stage rocket motor was conducted on 14 June 2007. The static firing included a full duration burn and a demonstration of the thrust vector control nozzle. The fourth test firing of the first-stage rocket motor was completed on Nov ...
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Stage 0 Arrive At Lauch Complex 576-E
Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Stages Repertory Theatre, a theatre company in Houston, Texas Music Performers * Stage, an American band featuring Ryan Star Albums * ''Stage'' (David Bowie album), 1978 * ''Stage'' (Great White album), 1995 * ''Stage'' (Keller Williams album), 2004 * ''Stage'', by Mónica Naranjo, 2009 * ''The Stage'' (album), by Avenged Sevenfold, or the title song (see below), 2016 * ''Stages'' (Cassadee Pope album), 2019 * ''Stages'' (Elaine Paige album), 1983 * ''Stages'' (Eric Clapton album), 1993 * ''Stages'' (Jimi Hendrix album), 1991 * ''Stages'' (Josh Groban album), 2015 * ''Stages'' (Melanie C album), 2012 * ''Stages'' (Triumph album), 1985 * ''Stages'' (Vedera album), 2009 * '' Stages: The Lost Album'', b ...
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Nike Zeus
Nike Zeus was an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system developed by the United States Army during the late 1950s and early 1960s that was designed to destroy incoming Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile warheads before they could hit their targets. It was designed by Bell Labs' Nike team, and was initially based on the earlier Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile. The original, Zeus A, was designed to intercept warheads in the upper atmosphere, mounting a 25 kiloton W31 nuclear warhead. During development, the concept changed to protect a much larger area and intercept the warheads at higher altitudes. This required the missile to be greatly enlarged into the totally new design, Zeus B, given the tri-service identifier XLIM-49, mounting a 400 kiloton W50 warhead. In several successful tests, the B model proved itself able to intercept warheads, and even satellites. The nature of the strategic threat changed dramatically during the period that Zeus was being developed. Or ...
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Orbiting Vehicle
Orbiting Vehicle or OV, originally designated SATAR (SATellite - Atmospheric Research), comprised five different series of standardized American satellites operated by the US Air Force, launched between 1965 and 1971. Forty seven satellites were built, of which forty three were launched and thirty seven reached orbit. With the exception of the OV3 series and OPS 0855, OV4-3, they were launched as secondary payloads, using excess space on other missions. This resulted in extremely low launch costs and short proposal-to-orbit times. Typically, OV satellites carried scientific and/or technological experiments, 184 being successfully orbited through the lifespan of the program. A common research focus was assessing the hazards of the near Earth environment to astronauts and equipment. The first OV series, designated OV1, was built by General Dynamics and carried on suborbital SM-65 Atlas, Atlas missile tests; the satellites subsequently placed themselves into orbit by means of an ...
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Atlas (rocket Family)
Atlas is a family of US missiles and space launch vehicles that originated with the SM-65 Atlas. The Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program was initiated in the late 1950s under the Convair Division of General Dynamics. Atlas was a liquid propellant rocket burning RP-1 kerosene fuel with liquid oxygen in three engines configured in an unusual "stage-and-a-half" or "parallel staging" design: two outboard booster engines were jettisoned along with supporting structures during ascent, while the center sustainer engine, propellant tanks and other structural elements remained connected through propellant depletion and engine shutdown. The Atlas name was originally proposed by Karel Bossart and his design team working at Convair on project MX-1593. Using the name of a Atlas (mythology), mighty Titan from Greek mythology reflected the missile's place as the biggest and most powerful at the time. It also reflected the parent company of Convair, the Atlas Corporation. The ...
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Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), the Pacific Ocean is the largest division of the World Ocean and the hydrosphere and covers approximately 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of the planet's total surface area, larger than its entire land area ().Pacific Ocean
. ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Britannica Concise.'' 2008: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The centers of both the Land and water hemispheres, water hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere, as well as the Pole of inaccessi ...
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Missile Defense Agency
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) is a component of the Federal government of the United States, United States government's United States Department of Defense, Department of Defense responsible for developing a comprehensive Missile defense, defense against ballistic missiles. It had its origins in the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) which was established in 1983 by Ronald Reagan and which was headed by James A. Abrahamson, Lt. General James Alan Abrahamson. Under the Strategic Defense Initiative's Innovative Sciences and Technology Office headed by physicist and engineer Dr. James Ionson, the investment was predominantly made in basic research at national laboratories, universities, and in industry. These programs have continued to be key sources of funding for top research scientists in the fields of high-energy physics, advanced materials, nuclear research, supercomputing/computation, and many other critical science and engineering disciplines—funding which indirectly suppo ...
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United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal Corps, the USAF was established by transfer of personnel from the Army Air Forces with the enactment of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the second youngest branch of the United States Armed Forces and the fourth in United States order of precedence, order of precedence. The United States Air Force articulates its core missions as air supremacy, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance, global integrated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, airlift, rapid global mobility, Strategic bombing, global strike, and command and control. The United States Department of the Air Force, Department of the Air Force, which serves as the USAF's ...
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Minotaur-C
Minotaur-C (''Minotaur Commercial''), formerly known as Taurus or Taurus XL, is a four Multistage rocket, stage solid rocket , solid fueled launch vehicle built in the United States by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Orbital Sciences (now Northrop Grumman) and launched from SLC-576E at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. It is based on the air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus, Pegasus rocket from the same manufacturer, utilizing a "zeroth stage" in place of an airplane. The Minotaur-C is able to carry a maximum payload of around 1458 kg into a low Earth orbit (LEO). First launched in 1994, it has successfully completed seven out of a total of ten military and commercial missions. Three of four launches between 2001 and 2011 ended in failure, including the 24 February 2009 launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission and the 4 March 2011 launch of the Glory (satellite), Glory mission, which resulted in losses totalling US$700 million for NASA (excluding the cost of the ro ...
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Orbital Sciences Corporation
Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other government customers. In 2014, Orbital merged with Alliant Techsystems (ATK) to create a new company called Orbital ATK, which in turn was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. Orbital was headquartered in Dulles, Virginia and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol ORB. Orbital's primary products were satellites and launch vehicles, including low Earth orbit (LEO), geosynchronous Earth orbit and planetary spacecraft for communications, remote sensing, scientific and defense missions; ground- and air-launched launch vehicles that delivered satellites into orbit; missile defense systems that were used as interceptor and target vehicles; and human-rated space systems for Earth orbit, lunar and other missions. Orbital ...
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