CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- You can't blame the U.S. Air Force for delaying launches from the Cape -- at least not for the past 100 shots.

With the successful Atlas 2AS mission launched Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Air Force-managed Eastern Range has now gone 100 flights in a row in which a technical problem with Air Force computers or range instrumentation has not contributed to postponement of a flight.

"One of the biggest myths out there is that Eastern Range instrumentation is more often than not the reason for most launch scrubs. That's simply not true," said Col. Mike Lehnertz, vice commander of the 45th Space Wing. "It's been more than three years since problems with range instrumentation scrubbed a launch."

The current winning streak began on April 9, 1999 with the launch of a Titan 4B rocket.

"One hundred straight is a remarkable accomplishment, especially since we're getting this done with older equipment that we're in the process of modernizing," Lehnertz said.

The Eastern Range is in the midst of a billion-dollar modernization effort to upgrade range instrumentation with new fiber optics communications, scheduling systems, weather equipment, state-of-the art surveillance, flight safety analysis technology and more.