Hey Mike,
I just found out today that I passed my certification test too
I'm a patent examiner and we need to be certified if we want to move up, do more work and make more money
Feels soooo good to have it behind me
I hate tests
Hey Mike,
I just found out today that I passed my certification test too
I'm a patent examiner and we need to be certified if we want to move up, do more work and make more money
Feels soooo good to have it behind me
I hate tests
Trying to catch up, but I think it may be hopeless once again.
I had my final physical therapy session today.
I GRADUATED!!!
Still have a lot of work to do at home and in the gym...but no more appointments 3 times a week.
Correction: Not CIA....NRO. The National Reconnaissance Office is the DOD agency responsible for designing, buiding and operating intel satellites and other aerial platforms. They work closely with/for CIA, NSA, NGA etc. Actually, they don't build the birds themselves, they rely on their contractors (TRW is #1) for that.
Now, as for the bird that coming down and the specific armament they're going to deploy...yeah, I am SO not getting into that unless/until multiple public news sources publish that information
Pentagon officials said it was that safety concern, rather than the intention to test a potential anti-satellite weapon, which led them to develop the plan for a missile intercept. They hope the impact of the warhead on a modified Standard Missile-3, or SM-3, will shatter the satellite and particularly the spherical hydrazine tank. The first shot could occur as early as next week, after the space shuttle Atlantis' return from its mission to the international space station.
Would a direct hit be required? Experts on space debris told msnbc.com that even a glancing blow would likely be enough. The force of a missile hitting an orbiting object is much more violent than the force of a bullet striking a target, or even an anti-aircraft missile hitting an airplane. In the space case, the tremendous speed of the impact carries so much kinetic energy that both vehicles literally explode due to the hypersonic shock waves sweeping through their structures.
If the missile strike leads to such a disintegration, sharp observers should be able to spot the ice fragments from the fuel tank. As the fragments evaporate in direct sunlight, they could create mini-comets visible from Earths surface, lasting for hours before dispersing.
Pentagon officials said the intercept would occur within range of military optical and radar sensors. Their goal would be to confirm the existence of dispersed hydrazine in the debris. If the sensors don't show the fuel dispersing, missile operators would target the fragment judged most likely to be the still-surviving fuel tank. A second shot could occur within a day or two of the first.
Giving the missiles a boost
Last week's orbital readings indicated that the satellite was circling Earth at an altitude between 160 and 168 miles (255 and 268 kilometers) and descending at an increasing rate, currently about six-tenths of a mile (1 kilometer) per day. Gen. Cartwright said the intercept would be attempted when the satellite descended to about 150 miles (240 kilometers).
The SM-3 has typically been used for testing the Pentagon's missile defense system, and reaches a nominal maximum altitude of just 100 miles (160 kilometers). For the satellite intercept, three missiles one each on three different AEGIS-class Navy cruisers will be modified to reach the higher altitude.
... [edited]...
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1T4TSHB_enUS232US232&sa=N
The SM-3 KW is a highly modular, compact, space tested kinetic warhead designed to defend against short to intermediate range ballistic missile attacks. Raytheon has engineered two prior generations of LEAP designs starting in 1985 under contracts with SDIO and BMDO. This third generation LEAP design integrates the teamed experience of Raytheon and Boeing in KW designs and Alliant Techsystems expertise in Solid Divert and Attitude Control. The SM-3 KW design features a large aperture wide field of view long wave infrared seeker that provides acquisition ranges greater than 300 km against typical ballistic missile threats. Seeker pointing and intercept guidance are supported by a production IFOG Inertial Measurement Unit and wooden round simplicity of the SDACS propulsion providing over 2 miles of terminal divert capability. The KW includes a fully encrypted data downlink capability for full engineering evaluation of KW performance and to support rapid kill assessment.
The SM-3 evolves from the proven SM-2 Block IV design. SM-3 uses the same booster and dual thrust rocket motor as the Block IV missile for the first and second stages and the same steering control section and midcourse missile guidance for maneuvering in the atmosphere. To support the extended range of an exo-atmospheric intercept, additional missile thrust is provided in a new third stage for the SM-3 missile, containing a dual pulse rocket motor for the early exo-atmospheric phase of flight and a Lightweight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile (LEAP) Kinetic Warhead (KW) for the intercept phase. Upon second stage separation, the first pulse burn of the Third Stage Rocket Motor (TSRM) provides the axial thrust to maintain the missiles trajectory into the exo-atmosphere. Upon entering the exo-atmosphere, the third stage coasts. The TSRMs attitude control system maneuvers the third stage to eject the nosecone, exposing the KWs Infrared (IR) seeker. If the third stage requires a course correction for an intercept, the rocket motor begins the second pulse burn. Upon completion of the second pulse burn, the IR seeker is calibrated and the KW ejects. The KW possesses its own attitude control system and guidance commands are acted upon by a solid divert propulsion system. The IR seeker acquires the target. Tracking information is continuously transmitted to the guidance assembly which controls the divert propulsion system.
Discrimination algorithms enable defense systems to compare objects in a target scene to determine which to intercept. Increasingly complex threats with separated target elements, countermeasures, and debris, require advanced signal processing and discrimination algorithms to identify object features needed to provide robust target selection. SM-3 has flown and demonstrated fundamental discrimination capability for unitary threats.
[above]The surrogate kinetic warhead (KW) for the Navy's theater wide missile defense system is seen here travelling at about 6,600 feet per second during a successful test conducted on June 24, 1999 at the high speed test track at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
The U.S. Navy successfully tested a surrogate STANDARD Missile-3 (SM-3) Kinetic Warhead (KW) for its theater wide missile defense system. The test was the last in a series of four developmental sled tests conducted at the High Speed Test Track at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
The test series was conducted to develop a new technique for lethality testing of the exo-atmospheric SM-3 KW on the ground where test conditions can be better controlled. The new technique also allows high speed full-scale testing of the SM-3 KW at representative Navy Theater Wide (NTW) system intercept speeds. A kinetic warhead destroys its target with the shear force of its impact, while a conventional warhead relies on the force of an explosion to help destroy a target. Since the actual SM-3 KW could not withstand the G-forces associated with high-speed sled testing, a "surrogate" was developed with the same size, shape, and weight, but with some of the mass redistributed to add strength.
The June 24, 1999 final developmental sled test in the series was a full-up high speed checkout test (HSCT), which demonstrated a high-speed impact of a full-scale SM-3 KW surrogate travelling at about 6,600 feet per second against a replica Tactical Ballistic Missile (TBM) payload. The HSCT was a complete success, not only demonstrating development of the new technique, but also demonstrating SM-3 lethality against the replica payload. The results of the HSCT, combined with ongoing analysis supported by modeling and simulation, and upcoming flight tests against similar threat targets, demonstrates the U.S. Navy's continuing progress toward fielding an effective Theater Wide TBMD capability.
The Program Executive Office for Theater Surface Combatants in Arlington, Va., sponsors the development and production of the SM-3 missile. The Navy Theater Wide Program Office (PMS 452) is responsible for program management and oversight. The Navy Standard Missile Office (PMS 422) acts as the overall program executing agent. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, executes the testing and analysis program through the High Speed Test Track at Holloman Air Force Base. Battelle Inc. manufactures the Kinetic Warhead surrogate in Huntsville, Ala., with instrumentation and engineering support supplied by SECOTEC in Huntsville, Ala. Raytheon Systems Company manufactures the SM-3 Missile in Tucson, Ariz. and in Camden, Ark.
Crash...I'm so glad to hear about your friend Jean!!
Praying for a miraculous recovery.
Hey Mike,
I just found out today that I passed my certification test too
I'm a patent examiner and we need to be certified if we want to move up, do more work and make more money
Feels soooo good to have it behind me
I hate tests
Trying to catch up, but I think it may be hopeless once again.
I had my final physical therapy session today.
I GRADUATED!!!
Still have a lot of work to do at home and in the gym...but no more appointments 3 times a week.
Hey Mike,
I just found out today that I passed my certification test too
I'm a patent examiner and we need to be certified if we want to move up, do more work and make more money
Feels soooo good to have it behind me
I hate tests
Well, yay! I'm a matron.One of my (2) BFFs called me tonight. She just got engaged! This is once of my friends from way back in HS dance team days. She's DS7's godmother. She's one of my friends whom I escape to WDW with when I go sans kids. I'm the "matron of honor" and my friend who we just met in WDW for the marathon is the "maid of honor"...she was also my maid of honor 13+ years ago. Good golly that "matron" makes me sound so much older!
My friend is 33 and never been married. She is more psycho about planning WDW vacations than 99% of the people here (yes, I truly understand that statement).
Bridezilla has been unleashed!
The "maid" of honor and I are already looking at bridesmaid dresses, hoping to pull off a pre-emptive strike!
Trying to catch up, but I think it may be hopeless once again.
I had my final physical therapy session today.
I GRADUATED!!!
Still have a lot of work to do at home and in the gym...but no more appointments 3 times a week.
you'll be back to running marathon's soon !
Trying to catch up, but I think it may be hopeless once again.
I had my final physical therapy session today.
I GRADUATED!!!
Still have a lot of work to do at home and in the gym...but no more appointments 3 times a week.
Yay you! 
Every formal I owned in HS had a butt bow! I hate them, but it was required in the 1980's. I even had a few of them 'taken in'. I was skinny in HS, like double digits skinny, & most of the butt bows were actually visible from the front - like my butt had wings. Oh, the butt bow.
Hey Mike,
I just found out today that I passed my certification test too
I'm a patent examiner and we need to be certified if we want to move up, do more work and make more money
Feels soooo good to have it behind me
I hate tests
Trying to catch up, but I think it may be hopeless once again.
I had my final physical therapy session today.
I GRADUATED!!!
Still have a lot of work to do at home and in the gym...but no more appointments 3 times a week.
Congrats! OK, DH & I are officially signed up for Disney's Expedition Everest Challenge!
4 days at WDW, no kids, and AKL for $155/night!
Oh, I really hate running!
Hey Mike,
I just found out today that I passed my certification test too
I'm a patent examiner and we need to be certified if we want to move up, do more work and make more money
Feels soooo good to have it behind me
I hate tests
Congratulations Laurie 
