Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdcad!amdcad!military From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Pegasus Message-ID: <1991Apr1.043127.18126@amd.com> Date: 30 Mar 91 23:52:07 GMT References: <1991Mar30.020340.27985@amd.com> Sender: military@amd.com Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 37 Approved: military@amd.com From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: kinney@wku.edu (Mark Kinney) > I look on the articles about the missile launches out of cargo planes >with interest. Could they possibly have been "feasability tests" for the >Pegasus rocket project? No, they are quite unrelated. Pegasus is a civilian, commercial project that owes much more to the X-15. The launch technique used for the C-5/Minuteman test -- roll the thing out the rear door, let it stabilize vertically under a drogue parachute, then light the fire -- bears little resemblance to Pegasus's horizontal launch. And the C-5/Minuteman work was a military project 10+ years ago, while Pegasus was developed by Orbital Sciences and Hercules, starting only about three years ago. > 1) The Air Force could lauch a new Keyhole so long as they have a >Pegasus, they can launch it almost *anywhere*, and whenever they want it. Uh, no go, sorry. Pegasus's payload is two orders of magnitude smaller than any of the current spysats. There *is* military interest in it, but a new generation of much smaller satellites will be needed. Pegasus's payload depends on the orbit, but the best case is a few hundred kilograms. > 2) Why limit it to satellites. Weapon potential is obvious from the >fact that ICBM's have been launched from aircraft. Launching ballistic missiles from aircraft long pre-dates any of this. The Skybolt medium-range ALBM was flying in the early 1960s; it was the intended primary armament of the B-52H. It had some development problems, but politics and the decline of the manned bomber had much more to do with its cancellation than technical difficulties. -- "The stories one hears about putting up | Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology SunOS 4.1.1 are all true." -D. Harrison| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry