(Download a higher resolution picture by clicking on any
picture below.)
Minuteman III launch from Vandenberg AFB, August 25, 2005 |
(Download a higher resolution picture by clicking on any
picture below.)
A Minuteman III missile was launched on a suborbital trajectory toward Kwajalein Atoll from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:01 A.M. on Thursday, August 25, 2005.
The Air Force periodically launches Peacekeeper and Minuteman missiles to demonstrate that they still work. They select a missile at random and pull it out of its silo. They bring the missile and a regular missile crew to VAFB. The crew launches the missile toward the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalien.
This 204.2-second time exposure was taken with a Nikon D70 digital camera set to an effective
film speed of ISO 200 with the 18mm lens aperture set to f3.5. It appeared in the August 26 edition of the Goleta Valley Voice newspaper.
Following the separation of the first stage, it blinked as it tumbled end over end in a ballistic trajectary below the ascending upper stages.
The arching trajectory of the Minuteman III carried it in front of the constellations Corona Borealis and Hercules.
You can buy a 2011 calendar featuring my photographs of rocket launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Photos of thirteen rocket launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base:
Pegasus-XL/Wide-Field Infra-red Explorer (WIRE) March 4, 1999
Atlas-IIAS/Terra December 18, 1999
Delta II/Gravity Probe B, April 20, 2004
Minotaur/Streak September 22, 2005
Titan IV/National Reconnaissance Office satellite, October 19, 2005
Minuteman III, February 16, 2006
Minuteman III, April 2, 2008
Target Launch Vehicle, September 24, 2008
Delta-II/GeoEye 1, September 6, 2008
Delta II/Jason 2, June 20, 2008
Delta II/COSMO-Skymed, October 24, 2008
Taurus/Orbiting Carbon Observatory, February 24, 2009
Delta-II/Worldview 2, October 28, 2009
Put a copy of the Rocket Launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base: 2011 Calendar in your Lulu.com shopping cart for $16.95.
More Vandenberg AFB
launch photography.
Link to the Federation of American Scientists' Minuteman missile page.
Link to the Federation of American Scientists' National Missile Defense page.
Link to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) National Missile Defense (NMD) page.
Link to the Strategic Air Command's Minuteman Missile page.
The home page of the 
30th Space
Wing
Brian Webb's Space Archive Page provides launch schedule and ham radio information.
Send a message to Brian .