Orbital Sciences Booster will Lift Missile Defense System

December 4

Orbital Sciences Booster will Lift Missile Defense System

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An Orbital Sciences Corp. booster will provide the lifting power for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Kinetic Energy Interceptors (KEI) system thanks to a contract awarded Wednesday by the Pentagon.

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/ima ... nterceptor.
A full scale model of the Kinetic Energy Interceptor.

CREDIT: ORBITAL SCIENCES

The Dulles, Va.-based company is to design, develop, test and produce the initial run of the interceptor missiles, which are designed to destroy hostile missiles during their climb away from the launch pad and before the weapon re-enters Earth's atmosphere.

Orbital is part of a Northrup Grumman-led team that will be the prime contractor for the KEI program, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

Orbital's contract is valued at approximately $400 million from 2004 through 2010 and is projected to be staffed by approximately 300 Orbital employees during its peak activity period.

The company also is the primary supplier of test and operational interceptor boosters for the defense agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, which is scheduled to begin initial deployments in 2004.

"With the addition of the KEI boost vehicle program, Orbital's interceptor and target launch vehicles are now being used to help develop, test and deploy missile defense systems in each layer of MDA's architecture, including the boost, midcourse and terminal phases of the missile defense system," said Orbital chief David Thompson.