This Navy Leer Jet is loaded with Navy brass who are landing on base to witness the launch which we learned about after it happened.
We were on the beach near Major's Bay on Friday Morning, the 13th. Much to our surprise a white streak shot through the sky. It was a missile being launched into space. The base where Jon serves is called the Pacific Missile Range Facility. They are experimenting with various types of missiles and warheads. Sometimes a Navy vessel will be off shore a few hundred miles and will "fire" at the island. Other times base personnel "fire" in the general direction of ships. The drill is to track and destroy the missiles. Some experiments are conducted during the day and others are at night. Drills are conducted in both the endo and exo-atmospheres. This particular drill was the first time that two missiles were launched nearly simultaneosly. The task was to track both at once. This picture shows the second missile in flight right before the first stage dropped off and the "jet trail" of the first missile. The size of the missile is about 20 feet long at launch. After stage deployment, the new missiles are about 3-4 feet long. They travel at over 20,000 miles per hour and can be guided to hit a very specific target. Go Navy!
This Naval destroyer was deployed out of Pearl Harbor, apparently to do more local tracking of the missles.
This Navy Leer Jet is loaded with Navy brass who are landing on base to witness the launch which we learned about after it happened.
We were on the beach near Major's Bay on Friday Morning, the 13th. Much to our surprise a white streak shot through the sky. It was a missile being launched into space. The base where Jon serves is called the Pacific Missile Range Facility. They are experimenting with various types of missiles and warheads. Sometimes a Navy vessel will be off shore a few hundred miles and will "fire" at the island. Other times base personnel "fire" in the general direction of ships. The drill is to track and destroy the missiles. Some experiments are conducted during the day and others are at night. Drills are conducted in both the endo and exo-atmospheres. This particular drill was the first time that two missiles were launched nearly simultaneosly. The task was to track both at once. This picture shows the second missile in flight right before the first stage dropped off and the "jet trail" of the first missile. The size of the missile is about 20 feet long at launch. After stage deployment, the new missiles are about 3-4 feet long. They travel at over 20,000 miles per hour and can be guided to hit a very specific target. Go Navy!
This Naval destroyer was deployed out of Pearl Harbor, apparently to do more local tracking of the missles.
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