ahiggins@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (02/05/89)
From: uunet!rob!elliston (Keith Elliston) >> part of the arms-limitation agreements. What better PR for the Army than >> to take one or two of those Pershings to this meet and set them off for >> the entertainment of the attendees? This would also allow the budding >> rocketeers to meet the Soviet observers and some of the actual hands-on >> military missile people, so it would be good "glasnost" PR for the USSR >> and a recruiting aid for the US. > > I may be a little naive, but sending up a pershing missile, even in this > day and age of Glasnost, I would think that the russians would view thi > this as being just a little questionable... I dont think that the powers > that be would be amenable to this sort of experiment. Legally, something like this is entirely possible. The INF Treaty allows for the destruction of missiles by static display, elimination in situ, or elimination by means of launching. Specifically, the treaty requires the launch to be monitored, for the launch to not provide a target vehicle for interceptor tests (i.e. SDI test), and for the launch to ignite each stage. Has anyone found out the exact launch capabilities of a Pershing II? Surely they could be used as a sounding vehicle or a microgravity experiment. -- Andrew J. Higgins | Illini Space Development Society 404 1/2 E. White St apt 3 | a chapter of the National Space Society Champaign IL 61820 | at the University of Illinois phone: (217) 359-0056 | P.O. Box 2255 Station A e-mail: ahiggins@pequod.cso.uiuc.edu | Champaign IL 61825 ^^^^^^ "When the Waters were dried an' the earth did appear,...The Lord He created the Engineer" - Rudyard Kipling
mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) (02/08/89)
The Pershing 2 failed many of its flight tests during development. I'll bet Martin Marietta is relieved to see them being destroyed without letting anyone have a chance to see how many of them really work. In one test, the missile failed because a large cast-iron ring was out of position. I was quite suprised to learn there were any cast-iron parts in a missile. After that, they X-rayed all the engines to make sure there weren't any similar defects.
PLS@cup.portal.com (Paul L Schauble) (02/09/89)
I understand that the Russians announced the treaty in Russia by showing the launching of a goodly number of missiles on national television. ++PLS