CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An Air Force Titan 2 that once served duty as a nuclear-tipped missile successfully launched a military weather satellite into polar Earth orbit from California on Saturday.
The $450 million space shot marked the final planned used of a refurbished Titan 2 missile and took nearly three years to get off the ground as a variety of technical problems and schedule issues delayed the flight.
Liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 4 West was at 12:17 p.m. EDT (1617 GMT). A quick six-and-a-half minutes later the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellite separated from the second stage of the two-stage booster and arrived in orbit.
All branches of the U.S. military will take advantage of the DMSP's weather monitoring capability. The DMSP is able to provide data directly to troops in the field, but also sends its observations to ground stations in Alaska, New Hampshire, Greenland and Hawaii.From there the weather data is relayed to a trio of major Air Force and Navy command centers, where meteorologists compile the information to produce and distribute worldwide weather forecasts.
DMSP images are routinely available to the public via the Internet, and amateur radio enthusiasts also are capable of receiving some of the DMSP's data and can create imagery with the help of a computer.
The spacecraft circle the Earth some 500 miles high in a sun synchronous orbit, which means the satellite crosses the equator at the same local time on each orbit.
With the capability to see an area some 1,800 miles wide, a DMSP satellite is capable of imaging the entire planet's surface every 12 hours.
Saturday's launch was to place the F-16 spacecraft into orbit. F-15 was launched in December 1999 and the next one, F-17, is expected to be launched on a Boeing Delta 4 in 2004.
Meanwhile, Saturday's shot also marked the end of an era as the final Titan 2 missile saw duty as a space launch vehicle.
Dozens of the two-stage missiles once saw duty in silos around the nation, ready to destroy the Soviet Union or anyone else who lobbed a nuclear missile toward the United States.
The vehicle also was used by NASA between 1964 and 1966 to launch two unmanned and 10 manned Gemini missions from Cape Canaveral.
More modern systems such as the Minuteman eventually replaced the Titan 2s. Between 1982 and 1987 the Lockheed Martin-built weapons were removed from their silos and mostly destroyed.
But in 1986 the Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to refurbish 14 of the intercontinental ballistic missiles, turning them into space launch vehicles. Now 13 of those have flown, with the 14th remaining as a spare and no plans to launch it.
Getting this mission off the ground was tough.
Some 33 months ago the launch was seconds from lifting off when computers aborted the countdown. Problems then cropped up with the satellite's guidance and propulsion systems, as well as one of the instruments onboard.
As the delays continued, Air Force officials decided to launch higher priority missions first, putting this Titan 2 to the end of the line.
Then two attempts earlier in the week were scrubbed because of last-minute technical problems that were quickly resolved.
Although California's coastal fog obscured the view for most, there were no issues that got in the way of a perfect launch on Saturday.
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