Yes, It Is Rocket Science!

Conn Carroll / April 28, 2009

In  The New York Times‘ week in review published April 25,  William Broad long-time science writer for the paper, discusses the debate over the effectiveness of the North Korean missile launch April 5. The article purports to represent the state of debate on North Korea missile developments. The analysis ignores basic facts known about the test.

In a recent public address, Lieutenant General Patrick O Reilly, director of the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency stated that the most recent analysis of the North Korean flight indicates that the first and second stage of the missile worked and the second and third stage functioned separation also occurred. This means that the failure was either in the third stage or the malfunction occurred between the third stage and the payload. While the flight was not successful, it did demonstrate a remarkable advance in demonstrating the progress of the North Korean long-range ballistic missile program. (more…)