SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) – What do you do when you can’t get to outer space? Bring outer space to Earth.
That’s what Boeing engineers did to fix problems with a $40 billion missile defense program.
Earlier this summer, a successful test destroyed a mock enemy target high above the Pacific Ocean. But that success came after three failed tests of the Boeing-designed system.
The reason for those failures? An impossible problem: how to recreate space-like conditions here on Earth.
The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system is designed to intercept ballistic missiles when they are at the highest point of their trajectory. That can be more than 62 miles above the Earth’s surface, outside of the planet’s atmosphere.
Once the interceptor reaches the edge of the atmosphere, it deploys a small device inside its tip, called an Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), that can destroy a ballistic missile by slamming into it at hypersonic speeds.
That’s how the system is supposed to work. But Boeing engineers learned getting the EKV and the GMD to work together at high altitudes was a challenge.
They determined that high-frequency space noises interfered with the interceptor’s radar and tracking systems, making it impossible to get a fix on its target.
So Boeing recreated the high-frequency pitches in the laboratory. Then they bombarded an interceptor’s tracking system with these space-like noises. Engineers managed to isolate the frequencies and reprogrammed the tracker to ignore the distracting signals.
The result of all this hard work led to the success of the June 22nd test.
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