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Show earth's atmosphere at 17,0001 miles an hour to hit a pinpoint! target. The Athena compresses a I 5000 mile ICBM flight into a] little more than 400 miles by dispensing with the long middle] portion of a normal ballistic S trajectory, and instead power-! ing its payload steeply upward] into space and then down through I the atmosphere at hypersonicj speeds to strike the ground at< preselected point on White! Sands Missile Range. The Athena is "aimed" up-1 ward and downward by the! launcher, and flies controlled I trajectory. After primary] booster burnout and separation, I a controlled pitch-over man-1 euver is performed and the! upper stages are fired down-1 ward at a preselected angle| dictated by test objectives. Data from the test is gathered I by ground optical radar and! :elemetry stations at the White I Sands Missile Range, and, I where required, by instru-J mented aircraft assigned to the| mission. Data gathered from Athena I tests in the past has formed! :he basis for reentry systems! mounted atop the nation's Ti-J an, Minuteman, Polaris and! Poseidon missiles and provides! in economical means of validating concepts for use in fu- j ture reentry vehicles. To get to its target, a re- I entry vehicle must withstand temperatures as high as 7000 degrees Fahrenheit as it burns rough the atmosphere. It also lust be aero dynamically shaped and sufficiently stable to laintain a desired trajectory and be strong enough to with- I stand thirty-times the pull of | gravity. The final version of a re- I entry vehicle designed for use on an ICBM type vehicle must successfully contend with enemy radar, high and low altitude interceptors, and elec- | ronic defenses. The Athena program has I roven out methods of clutter- j tng up enemy defensive radar Iwiiii cuai - a large volume of I Imetal objects that mask an rea under radar surveillance and decoys which appear on radar screens to be "live" re-ntry vehicles. This makes it rder for an attacker to iden-ly the "real" blip of a re- | PRESS BRIEFING - Members of the Salt Lake City and southeastern Utah area media are briefed on the Air Force Athena program at WSMR's Utah Launch Complex under the watchful eye of Salt Lake City's KSL-TV cameraman- BiU Jenon. At the briefers' table are (1. to r.) Jim Lovelady, WSMR Information Office; Don Fassel, Atlantic Research Corp., Athena program manager; Navy Captain George L. Dickey, assistant deputy for Naval Applications, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Organization; and A. Muray Maughan, chief of the Utah Launch Complex. Afourth briefer, not shown was Ray Robertson of the Salt Lake City based Hercules Corporation. The press briefing was held Aug. 12. On Friday the 13th, participants viewed a successful Athena H launch from the Watermelon Mesa observation area that overlooks the Athena launching facilities at Green River. Mr. Maughan was host for the two-day press briefing. (U.S. Army Photo By Warren Weaver) taliatory force on his screen! and launch an interceptor mis- j sile toward it. Athena tests give Army, Navy, Air Force and DOD designers a chance to see what a particular reentry shape "looks" like on radar, and then [ modify that shape to make it harder to "see." Different shapes can also increase the accuracy of the system. By flying over land, the Athena program has several advan- | tages. First of all, pay loads requiring assured or rapid re- [ covery need an overland range. Tests of fuze mechanisms re- | quire impact data unobtainable in an ocean test. And, an inland range provides additional security factors which are not I possible with a launch over the ocean. Once reentry system com- I ponents have proven their effectiveness on Athena flights, the complete reentry vehicle can be tested in a full scale flight on the Eastern or Western Test Ranges if required. ATHENA H - A 60-foot, 30,000-pound Athena H research vehicle is seen on its launcher at WSMR's Utah Launch Complex a day-prior to firing. An unidentified Atlantic Research Corporation employe conducts a final inspection inside the missile's hangar. The shroud was moved away from the missile the following morning, Aug. 13, fora successful launch. (U.S. Army Photo By Warren Weaver)_____ |
