Word: launchful
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Under its current launch schedule, NASA must sweat out up to 17 more nail-biting, foam-flying launches like the Discovery lift-off on Tuesday - including one set for late August or early September - before construction of the International Space Station is completed and the space shuttle is mercifully retired...
...Since President Reagan launched the latest generation of U.S. missile defenses in 1983, envisioning an impregnable missile shield over the U.S., the nation has spent $91 billion (with $58 billion more slated to be spent over the next six years) to protect the country from missile attack. But his ambitious hopes to render nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete" have been dramatically downsized. Reagan envisioned a network of satellites, sensors and even space-based weapons capable of thwarting a massive missile strike from the Soviet Union or China. But with the Cold War's end, the scale of the threat...
...more daunting than originally thought. In a series of scripted $100 million tests, 155-pound interceptors have destroyed dummy warheads in just five out of 10 tries between 1999 and 2005. The two most recent tests failed when the boosters designed to lob the interceptors into space failed to launch. After spending a year beefing up quality control, two tests are planned for later this year. Despite the system's shakiness, the White House in 2002 ordered the Pentagon to build it, citing "the contemporary and emerging missile threat from hostile states." Because of the perceived urgency, the Pentagon relaxed...
...what Pentagon officials call "a thin line of defense" that's equal parts James Bond and Rube Goldberg. There are 11 interceptors ready to launch from silos in Alaska and California, cued to their targets by arrays of satellites and shipboard sensors all linked through a Colorado command center. The Pentagon wants 48 interceptors by 2011, including 10 in Europe - the Czech Republic and Poland are likely sites - oriented toward any threat from Iran. While the system generally isn't on full alert - meaning ready to fire its interceptors - Pentagon officials said last week the system had been cranked...
...system's reliability. A 2004 test failed because an error in one line of computer code kept the interceptor grounded. The most recent failure, in February 2005, happened after two of the three arms that hold the interceptor in place in its silo didn't fully retract during launch because a part had corroded. The Missile Defense Agency penalized the Boeing Co., the system's developer, $107 million for the string of snafus. Pentagon audits also slammed Raytheon Corp., which builds the $40 million interceptor, for shoddy work. "The contractor cannot build a consistent and reliable product," the GAO said...