Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORB) has announced the successful launch of the second of two medium-range target vehicles that supported the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Critical Measurements and Countermeasures Program, Campaign 1 (CMCM-1).
Orbital's medium-range Castor IVB(R) target vehicle was launched from Kauai Test Facility on the Pacific Missile Range Facility, on Aug. 18. As in the previous CMCM-1 launch, on Aug. 4, Orbital's role in the test was to supply the boost vehicle, integrate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratories payload deployment module and Sandia National Laboratories reentry system, and conduct launch operations as contracted by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
The launch was conducted by the company's Launch Systems Group based in Chandler, Ariz., Business Wire said.
"We are delighted to have successfully executed the second and final mission of the CMCM-1 campaign for the U.S. missile defense effort," said Ronald Wiley, Orbital's Senior Vice President of Suborbital Launch Vehicles.
"A tremendous amount of data was collected on these two missions, not only phenomenology and signature data that is critical to MDA missile defense development activities, but target vehicle performance data that helps us improve our modeling and simulation capabilities for future target missions," Wiley said.
Orbital also supplies target vehicles for MDA's Ground-based Midcourse Defense System (GMDS), the U.S. Navy's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, and the U.S. Army's Patriot (PAC-3) and Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Systems.
