Air Force Systems Command successfully conducts its first “cold launch” from an underground silo, a modified Minuteman launch facility at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The cold-launch technique ejects the missile from the silo by gas pressure, and the propellant ignites after it becomes airborne. This technique causes less damage to the silo and reduces the time needed for another launch.
In the final few hours before the Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day recess on May 26, lawmakers approved a raft of some 3,400 pending military nominations, including a number of high-profile Air Force and Space Force generals to assignments that will significantly reshape some of the upper echelons of…