Now that I have time to write in a bit more leisurely fashion about this:
After seeing the NYSlimes tout their "But critics said that the test lacked key elements of realism and that its main objective had been to allow the Missile Defense Agency to claim the program was back on track after the interceptors in the last two flight tests, in December 2004 and February 2005, failed to leave their silos." in the article linked above, I checked back on FR as to the reason for the Feb'05 "failure".
When I did so, I discovered several stories on FR about it failing, but didn't see a single article, or even a post within those articles, about WHAT had failed. When I found out it was simply due to a rusty hinge, I wanted to make certain the record was set straight regarding this test.
Now that I've put out this firestorm I generated, I'll go back and link this story to the other Feb'05 FRAUDcasts that touted how badly this program was doing... so when next time someone looks for this reason they'll be able to find out more quickly that we just had to change the hinges on the control arms.
Again, I'm sorry to all about failing to include something in the first post or two HIGHLIGHTING that this was an article about an experimental test over a year ago.
Addendum: I had recalled that the Dec'04 test failed due to a the research computer communications link being too slow, and that IS posted on some follow up articles on FR.
Thanks for collecting the relevant articles.....excellent!
What was the solution? A case of WD-40 to be applied occasionally?
There were many such posts. You must allocate even more time to scanning FreeRepublic. 18 hours a day won't get it anymore. :)
Thanks for highlighting the reason for the failure.
It is important to get the story out there.