Raytheon EKV CE-II missile defense system strikes target in test

The Boeing-managed ground-based system intended to shield the continental United States successfully intercepted a simulated incoming missile over the Pacific Ocean for the first time Sunday, the Pentagon said.

The Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, with a $40 billion price tag, aims to protect against long-range ballistic missiles from so-called rogue states such as North Korea and Iran. But government records show it has failed a series of tests.

President Barack Obama's administration has announced it plans to spend about $1.3 billion on 14 more interceptors, but only if the closely-watched test was successful.

The interceptor missile was fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and struck a dummy intermediate-range ballistic missile launched from the US Army's Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

"This is a very important step in our continuing efforts to improve and increase the reliability of our homeland ballistic missile defense system," Missile Defense Agency chief Vice Admiral James Syring said in a statement.

The successful test followed the system's failure to hit a simulated missile in five of eight previous tests since president George W. Bush's administration launched the program in 2004.

The latest version of the warhead flown for the test contained hardware and software upgrades, according to manufacturer Raytheon.

It was the first successful intercept by Raytheon's Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle Capability Enhancement II, or EKV CE-II, which failed in both previous tests conducted in 2010.

"We made the fixes needed to be made from the last test, which was back in December of 2010," Pentagon spokesman Admiral John Kirby told reporters on Friday.

He compared the test to "hitting a BB with a BB... It's pretty significant if it works."

"Testing is critically important to ensuring the advancement of reliable kill vehicles for the protection of the US and its allies," Raytheon Missile Systems president Taylor Lawrence said.

Overall, the test marked the 65th successful intercept out of 81 attempts since 2001 for the Ballistic Missile Defense System, according to the Pentagon.

"This mission met several complex test objectives, including a long-duration flight time for the ground-based interceptor and high velocity closing speeds for intercept," a "proud" Boeing said.

Meteor Shower Strikes Russia: 200+ Residents Injured and Buildings Damaged

A meteor in central Russia has caused some injuries and shattered windows, reports say.

Brightly burning rocks could be seen for hundreds of kilometres as they crashed into the Ural region.

Chelyabinsk residents reported shaking ground, windows being shattered and car alarms being set off during the shower.

The traces from falling objects could be seen in Yekaterinburg, about 200km (125 miles) north of Chelyabinsk, a witness told the Reuters news agency.

Credit Reuters

A meteor crashing in Russia's Ural mountains has injured at least 500 people, as the shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings.

Most of those hurt suffered minor cuts and bruises but some received head injuries, Russian officials report.

A fireball was seen streaking through the clear morning sky above the city of Yekaterinburg, followed by loud bangs.

A large meteor fragment landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in the neighbouring Chelyabinsk region.

Much of the impact was felt in the city of Chelyabinsk, some 200km (125 miles) south of Yekaterinburg.

It suddenly became as bright as if it was day”

Viktor Prokofiev, a Yekaterinburg resident said;

"It was quite extraordinary. We saw a very bright light and then there was a kind of a track, white and yellow in the sky."

"The explosion was so strong that some windows in our building and in the buildings that are across the road and in the city in general, the windows broke."

Officials say a large meteor partially burned up in the lower atmosphere, resulting in fragments falling earthwards.

Thousands of rescue workers have been dispatched to the area to provide help to the injured, the emergencies ministry said.

A total of 102 people called for medical assistance following the incident, according to interior ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov, mostly for treatment of injuries from glass broken by the explosions.

Mr Kolsenikov also said about 6,000 square feet of a roof at a zinc factory collapsed.

Reports conflicted on what happened in the clear skies.

A spokeswoman for the emergency ministry, Irina Rossius, said there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteorite.

Lightning bolt striking through a Rainbow

Stormchaser Travis Heying photographed a lightning bolt striking through a rainbow over the Little Arkansas River near his home in Wichita, Kansas.

Fortunately, this spectacle happened right on his doorstep.

Picture: TRAVIS HEYING / MCT / CATERS NEWS

Lightning Strikes The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco - Image

All Credit to photographer Phil McGrew for this remarkable shot.

Meteor impact crater in Canada

Meteor impact crater in Canada

Credit: ESA/NASA

Meteorite strikes at county cricket match

Two cricket fans had a narrow escape when a meteorite crashed to earth next to them as they supped pints on the boundary last week. The 4.5 billion-year-old rock came hurtling out of the sky as Jan Marszel and Richard Haynes watched Sussex bat against Middlesex in a county game at Uxbridge.

It is thought to be the first meteor to land in Britain since 1992 and the stellar projectile could hardly have chosen a more incongruous landing site than the pastoral surroundings of an English cricket ground.

Marszel and Haynes were watching Monty Panesar and Luke Wright bat for Sussex on Wednesday when they saw the object. They could have been forgiven for thinking it was a cricket ball, but in fact it turned out to be a rock from outer space, which ploughed into the turf in front of them.

Marszel, 51, said: "We were sitting at the boundary edge when all of a sudden, out of a blue sky, we saw this small dark object hurtling towards us. It landed five yards inside the boundary and split into two pieces.

"One piece bounced up and hit me in the chest and the other ended up against the boundary board. It came across at quite a speed – if it had hit me full on it could have been very interesting."

Haynes, who is retired, said he was in no doubt that the rock came from space. "If it had come from the other direction we might have suspected someone had thrown it," he told the Brighton Argus. "But we saw it come in straight over the ground from quite a way out – it was definitely a meteorite."

Dr Matthew Genge, a meteorite expert at Imperial College, London, said that if the rock was verified as a meteorite then it was "very exciting".

"Potentially it contains secrets as to the formation of our solar system," he explained.

Boy hit by UFO - Meteorite

14-year old German boy was hit in the hand by a pea-sized meteorite that scared him and left a scar.

"When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road," Gerrit Blank said in a newspaper account. Astronomers have analyzed the object and conclude it was indeed a natural object from space.

Most meteors vaporize in the atmosphere, creating "shooting stars," and never reach the ground. The few that do are typically made mostly of metals. Stony space rocks, even if they are big as a car, will usually break apart or explode as they crash through the atmosphere.

There are a handful of reports of homes and cars being struck by meteorites, and many cases of space rocks streaking to the surface and being found later.

But human strikes are rare. There are no known instances of humans being killed by space rocks.