Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile successfully launches Nov. 5. The missile was configured with a National Nuclear Security Administration test assembly in which a single unarmed re-entry vehicle traveled approximately 4,190 miles to their pre-determined targets near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Joe Davila / Air ForceBehind The Scenes Of An ICBM Launch
-- Air Force Times
-- Air Force Times
Vandenberg missile launches are anything but routine
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — A brilliant flash of light startled the rolling central California hills out of their slumber early in the morning of Nov. 5. There was no sound at first — it took a few seconds for the sound of the blast to travel the mile or so to the launch-viewing platform — just eye-searing white light.
A ball of flame roared skyward, and out of the conflagration emerged Glory Trip 198, a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, rising slowly as it began its trans-Pacific journey from Vandenberg to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
The roar defies description, though it bore some resemblance to an F-16 afterburner as it screams down the runway on takeoff.
The ICBM gained speed. Within a minute, the rocket had accelerated to nearly 5,000 mph and reached an altitude of 100,000 feet.
Another flash of light marked the sky as the rocket’s second stage ignited and the first was jettisoned. The spent first stage fell earthward, its red-hot tail tumbling end over end.
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