Air Force Scores 8th Successful MX Missile Launch

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE — The Air Force launched an unarmed MX missile Friday that successfully reached a target 4,100 miles away on a Pacific Ocean atoll, officials said.

The missile was launched at 8:15 a.m. from Vandenberg and reached its target on the Kwajalein atoll about 30 minutes later, Capt. John Sullivan said. The intercontinental ballistic missile carried seven unarmed re-entry warheads into two separate target areas within the test range on and surrounding the U.S. Army’s target atoll, Sullivan said.

The missile was fired from an underground silo at Vandenberg, the eighth such time a silo test has been conducted, the Pentagon said. Early development tests were conducted from above-ground launch pads.