The Air Force conducted the latest in an ongoing series of intercontinental ballistic missile test launches from the Central Coast Wednesday morning.
An unarmed Minuteman III took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 1 a.m. The test was planned months ago, and other countries were notified in advance of the launch. It delivered a test re-entry vehicle to a launch range in the South Pacific.
More than 300 of the ICBM launches have been conducted over the decades. Air Force officials say they are intended to test the preparedness of flight crews and the reliability of equipment.
Some activists protested the launch. Demonstrators with a group called Defuse Nuclear War say instead of acting as an insurance policy, the test launches normalize the missiles as a permanent part of global politics.
