Missile Launch to Support Boost Phase Data Collection Experiment Successfully Completed

23 August 2007

Missile Launch to Support Boost Phase Data Collection Experiment
Successfully Completed

Lt. Gen. Henry "Trey" Obering III, Missile Defense Agency director,
announced today the successful execution of an important exercise
designed to collect data on a boosting long-range target missile by the
Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) research satellite.

A modified Minuteman II booster vehicle was launched today from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. at approximately 1:30 a.m. PDT (4:30
am EDT) and was successfully tracked by the NFIRE satellite. The NFIRE
satellite has been in orbit since it was launched from NASA's Wallops
Island, Va. space launch facility on April 24, 2007.

This exercise provided an opportunity for the NFIRE satellite to collect
high and low resolution images of a boosting rocket which will improve
understanding of missile exhaust plume observations and plume-to-rocket
body discrimination. Data from the NFIRE satellite was downlinked to
the Missile Defense Space Experimentation Center (MDSEC) at the Missile
Defense Integration & Operations Center (MDIOC) at Schriever AFB, Colo.
The NFIRE exercise campaign supports the design and development of
space-based sensors like the Space Tracking and Surveillance System
(STSS) currently under development as well as design and development of
boost phase interceptor sensors.

Program officials will continue to evaluate system performance based
upon telemetry and other data obtained during the exercise. The Missile
Defense Agency will use this data to validate and update models and
simulations that are fundamental to missile defense technologies.

General Dynamics is the system integrator for the NFIRE mission, and
designed and manufactured the satellite. The Air Force Research
Laboratory (AFRL) and Science Applications International Corp. provided
the primary payload, the Track Sensor Payload, and Orbital Sciences
Corp. provided the booster rocket system. The secondary payload for
conducting crosslink satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-ground
communication experiments is the Laser Communication Terminal built by
Tesat-Spacecom of Germany.


News media point of contact is Rick Lehner, Missile Defense Agency, at
(703) 697-8997 or