Missile-defense test gives area residents a brilliant light show

Monday, Oct. 4, 1999 | 11:45 a.m.

Southern Nevadans and residents of Southern California were treated to a brief but spectacular light show Saturday when the Air Force tested a prototype anti-missile system.

A Minuteman missile's s vapor cloud, lit in rainbow colors by the setting sun, could be seen for hundreds of miles.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense said that shortly after 7 p.m. Saturday the unarmed Minuteman missile carrying a dummy warhead and a decoy balloon was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, Calif.

About 20 minutes later a "kill vehicle" missile was launched from the Marshall Islands. The two missiles hurtled toward each other at a combined speed of about 16,000 mph.

Ten minutes later, 3,000 miles from California and about 140 miles above the ocean, they met.

"It was a successful intercept," Sheryl Irwin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, said from the Pentagon. "It did everything it was supposed to do, and it did it perfectly."

She said it was the first test of the "kill vehicle" missile's ability to actually destroy a target by smashing into it.

The system that was tested Saturday was designed to destroy missiles launched by rogue states or terrorists, not a multimissile barrage from a major nuclear power.

Unwary spectators in Las Vegas Valley saw a reflection of sunrays off the Minuteman's exhaust, which created an eerie phenomenon not uncommon in this region given the frequency of missile testing.

"I've seen some really spectacular sights," a National Weather Service spokesman said.