Air Force scrubs Minuteman launch Saturday, 15 January 2000 3:18 (ET) Air Force scrubs Minuteman launch By HIL ANDERSON

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Plans to launch four satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a refurbished Minuteman II missile were scrubbed Friday night after an unidentified problem developed.

An Air Force spokesman said the nature of the glitch was not immediately known and the Air Force had not rescheduled the launch.

Link to story:

http://www.insidechina.com/frames/frames.php3?url=http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upiheadlines.cfm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 15, 2000

Answers

Yikes.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 15, 2000.

"And the rockets red glare ... " Oops, never mind!

-- hiding in plain (sight@edge of.nowhere), January 15, 2000.

Saturday January 15 2:44 AM ET

Air Force Scraps Rocket Launch

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Officials scrubbed the launch of an Air Force rocket that was primed to carry nearly a dozen tiny satellites into space late Friday after low voltage was detected in on-board batteries.

Liftoff of the Orbital Suborbital Program rocket was canceled at 9:40 p.m. PST, just 14 minutes before the close of its launch window. The launch was rescheduled for Jan. 22.

Before the cancellation, takeoff had been delayed at least three times due to a glitch in the system that commands the countdown, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Colleen Lehne.

The rocket's first two stages are comprised of engines from Minuteman II missiles decommissioned under a 1991 arms control treaty. The third and fourth stages are from a commercial rocket.

The launch was to have marked the first time pieces of a missile were used to place a payload into orbit, although the Air Force has used the engines several times in suborbital tests. It also was to have been the world's first space launch this year.

Using a hybrid rocket shaves about 30 percent off the cost of sending a payload into orbit, said Air Force Maj. Steven Buckley, the mission's flight director.

Although several small satellites were to be carried into space, the flight's primary mission was to test whether the rocket works.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000115/sc/launch_scrubbed_1.html

-- (pigs@do.fly), January 16, 2000.

Darn. Those nighttime launches are beautiful. We saw a missile lift from Vandy all the way down here in San Diego. Very impressive.

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), January 16, 2000.

They are particularly impressive when they blow them up over the Pacific.

-- eubie (eubie@inaminute.man.com), January 17, 2000.