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Using ICBMs for Launch Vehicles

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Department: 
The Future in Space
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"It sounds like the perfect definition of "swords into plowshares": converting ICBMs into satellite launch vehicles. Wayne Eleazer discusses the controversy proposals to do so have generated in the US launch industry over the years."

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An embarrassment of riches

Source: 

The Space Review Download time: Jun 28 2010 9:32 AM ET

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision earlier this year concerning a protest filed by SpaceX shows that an issue first raised over 20 years ago is still around and kicking. SpaceX protested the award of a launch for NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission to Orbital Sciences Corporation. The basis of the protest was that Orbital's Minotaur V launch vehicle uses surplus ballistic missile components, specifically the first stage from a decommissioned LGM-118 Peacekeeper ICBM. So here we go again.

In the late '80s and early '90s the space launch community was roiled by the prospect of surplus missiles becoming available. In 1985 NASA had tried desperately to stop the conversion of Titan II ICBMs for space launch; after the loss of the Shuttle Challenger such objections stopped but were replaced a few years later by protests by private industry.…

See The Space Review for links to further info.