Apr 24 2007
From The Space Library
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully launched a Minotaur-1 rocket from the Mid- Atlantic Regional Spaceport launchpad on Wallops Island, Virginia, at 2:47 a.m. (EST). The rocket carried the Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE), which was part of a study to improve the interception of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and to assess the viability of a laser communication system for missile-defense applications. During the mission, an infrared tracking sensor on board NFIRE would collect exhaust-plume data from two disarmed Minutemen ICBMs, which the agency would launch later in 2007 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch of Minotaur 1 was the second launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Operated by a consortium including Old Dominion University and the states of Maryland and Virginia, the spaceport was one of six federally licensed spaceports in the United States.
Stephen Furness, “Wallops Spaceport’s 2:47 a.m. Launch a Success,” Chincoteague Beacon (VA), 24 April 2007; Jon W. Glass, “Rocket Launched Successfully from Eastern Shore Spaceport,” Virginian-Pilot (Hampton Roads, VA), 25 April 2007.
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