Vandenberg Air Force Base was set to launch an unarmed Minuteman III missile as an operational test in the early morning hours of Aug. 19. The Air Force Global Strike command regularly uses VAFB to ensure that its weapon systems are working as intended.
This makes the fourth test from VAFB this year, following the test launch of a Minuteman III on May 20.
The Minuteman III is an intercontinental ballistic missile designed for delivery of up to three thermonuclear warheads to a target on the other side of the world. It blasts off into suborbital spaceflight in a matter of minutes, orbits for less than half an hour, and reenters the atmosphere at 4.3 miles per second.
The Minuteman III is the only ICBM the United States has left after the removal of the LGM-118 Peacekeeper missiles from the U.S. arsenal in 2005.
The launch of an Atlas V rocket into orbit carrying a classified payload from the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office in September will likely be the next rocket launched out of VAFB.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2015.
