Luna Innovations' Electronics used in demo of flight test of missile defense interceptors

ROANOKE, Va., 19 July 2008.Luna Innovations' multi-year program with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) logged a major development milestone with a technology-demonstration flight test from the NASA Wallops Flights Facility, Va.

The exercise, identified as the Next Generation Sensor Producibility flight test (NGSP-01), demonstrated the performance of emerging sensor technologies, materials, and designs that offer improvements for next-generation missile defense interceptors, or "kill vehicles."

Kill vehicles are designed to intercept incoming ballistic missile warheads outside the earth's atmosphere, as well as to destroy them via high-speed collision.

Luna provided low-cost sensor and data communications electronics for use in this test of multiple elements of next-generation kill vehicles for ballistic missile defense.

During the exercise, a Black Brant XI sounding rocket carried a payload consisting of multiple optical and infrared sensors, along with various objects. Upon reaching the desired altitude in the exo-atmosphere, the objects were ejected to present a viewing scene for the sensors under test.

Data collected during NGSP-01 will undergo thorough analysis and be evaluated for use in the development of future missile defense interceptor kill vehicles.

The NGSP-01 experiment was not a weapon system exercise.