Need a rocket scientist...

[drwayne]

Mnay years ago, almost 20 now, when I was first discovering those marvelous new things called Bitnet and Arpanet, there was a guy with a sig line:<br /><br />"I try to keep an open mind, but not so open as my brains fall out"<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[halman]

newsartist,<br /><br />I have heard of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, but I am not a rocket surgeon, so could you please explain what an IRBM is? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> The secret to peace of mind is a short attention span. </div>

 

[najab]

A short-range ballistic missle warhead flies in the atmosphere for its entire flight. This limits the range to a few hundred miles at most. An ICBM warhead has a significant peroid of exo-atmospheric flight, and then it brakes for reentry. Since the coast phase is outside the atmosphere, it can be of arbitrary length (most US and Russian launch vehicles are derived from ICBMs). ICBMs have ranges of 10,000 miles or more. The flight profile of an IRBM warhead peaks outside the atmosphere, but they don't have the long coast phase - the flight profile is similar to the Mercury-Redstone missions (Redstone was developed from an IRBM).