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Officials Explain 2001 MX Missile Test Failure
A U.S. ICBM plunged in pieces into the Pacific Ocean during a test on July 27, 2001, when the weapon’s first stage could not be jettisoned due to a manufacturing flaw, the Lompoc Record reported (see GSN, May 7). Air Force Space Command officials recently released a report from the panel that probed the cause of the MX missile’s crash. The report says that all systems operated normally for the first 60 seconds of flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. However, with the first-stage motor still attached as the second stage ignited, the missile careened out of control, activating its self-destruct system and hurling flaming wreckage into the ocean. Three missile parts have been identified as possibly causing the mishap. Due to the missile’s destruction, the individual components could not be tested further. “As a result, the failure can only be identified as occurring within one of these three components,” Col. Allen Kirkman Jr., accident investigation board president, wrote in his statement of opinion. Vandenberg officials said Peacekeeper weapons with dummy warheads were launched successfully in 2002 and 2003. Typically, the base tests only one Peacekeeper missile annually, at a cost of about $61 million per test (Lompoc Record, May 9).
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