The Air Force had to call off at the last minute a planned July 19 launch of an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The flight was supposed to test the missile’s reliability, said the Air Force. The launch delay is expected to be brief, and the ICBM could fly as early as Thursday. The missile’s three warheads will be hurled toward a target in the Marshall Islands area. The launch authority is the 576th Flight Test Squadron at Vandenberg.
The White House announced its United States Space Priorities Framework in a document released concurrently with Vice President Kamala Harris' first National Space Council meeting. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”