The Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) was a satellite that was proposed and developed by the

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, defe ...

, a division of the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

. It was launched atop a Minotaur rocket, from

Wallops Island Wallops Island is a island in Accomack County, Virginia, part of the Virginia Barrier Islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States. It is just south of Chincoteague Island, a popular tourist destination. Wallops Isla ...

, at 06:48 GMT on 24 April 2007. Though primarily designed to gather data on exhaust plumes from rockets, the satellite was also intended to contain a kill vehicle similar to kinds intended for the

Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic nuclear missiles. The program was announced in 1983, by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan called for a ...

. A missile was then to be fired at and nearly miss the instrumented kill vehicle. This feature was later removed. NFIRE was funded by $44 million in FY2004. In 2004, the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

instructed the

, MDA, to remove the kill vehicle from the planned 2006 NFIRE launch, approving $68 million in FY2005 subject to that condition. The

Senate Appropriations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate. The Senate Appropriations Committee is the largest committ ...

reviewing the NFIRE program, however, urged the MDA to return the missile defense interceptor ( kill vehicle) to the originally scheduled test, despite the controversial perception of this leading to the deployment of weapons in space. The committee, which approved $13.7 million for the NFIRE program in FY06, told the MDA to "complete development and mission integration of the deployable NFIRE Kill Vehicle." The MDA removed the kill vehicle portion of the planned test, saying it posed a risk of technical failure, and replaced it with a laser communications payload from Tesat-Spacecom. NFIRE reentered the Earth's atmosphere on November 4, 2015.

References

External links

Space Security Index 2005 Space Based Strike Weapons Briefing
{{Orbital launches in 2007 Spacecraft launched in 2007 Spacecraft which reentered in 2015 Missile defense Satellites of the United States Space weapons Spacecraft launched by Minotaur rockets