Orbital Sciences has announced that it successfully launched 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).
The second launch of Orbital’s medium-range Castor IVB target vehicle originated from Kauai Test Facility on the Pacific Missile Range Facility, on Thursday, August 18.
As in the previous CMCM-1 launch, which was carried out earlier this month on August 4, Orbital’s role in the test was to supply the boost vehicle, integrate both 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, AZ.
“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 Mr. Ronald D. 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.”
