F-15 50th Anniversary: The A-Sat, with some visual tips for the kit builder

ASat=Anti Satellite

Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) ASM (Anti Satellite Missile)-135A: Two solid-rocket stages (first stage made by Boeing), third rocket stage with telescopic heat seeker known as the Miniature Homing Vehicle, speed of 15-thousand miles per hour.

McDonnell-Douglas F-15A Eagle: F-15 EAGLE NOW 50 YEARS OLD, a quick visual history

Boeing promotional photo dated August 1982. Note, the F-15A in the background is not the F-15A used in the ‘Capture Carry’ part of the ASat testing program.

First ‘capture carry’ flights of F-15A Eagle #76-0086 armed with ASat were in December 1982.

F-15A Eagle armed with the ASM-135A, 21DEC1982. U.S. Air Force photo by H.L. Wilson.

Over Edwards Air Force Base, California, 21DEC1982. U.S. Air Force photo by Al Chang.

Over Edwards AFB, California. Boeing photo released in January 1983.

Model kit builders take note, the ‘fin flash’ on 76-0086 is changed sometime between 1983 and 1985.

ASat equipped Eagle over Vandenberg AFB, California, 03APR1985.
USAF photo by Paul E. Reynolds.

The actual launch of the ASM-135A was done in September 1985, by F-15A #76-0084 first seen in the photo from August 1982. Model kit builders note that back in August 1982, 76-0084 did not have the fin flash.

F-15 launches an ASat, somewhere off California’s Pacific Coast. USAF photo by Paul E. Reynolds, 13SEP1985.

In September 1985, a Solwind P78-1 satellite was destroyed by the ASM-135A ASat, launched by F-15A Eagle 76-0084.

Major Wilbert ‘Doug’ Pearson successfully launched the ASM-135A. USAF photo by Paul E. Reynolds, 13SEP1985.

The successful ASat program was canceled in 1988, due to U.S. public concern over the possibility of war in space. However, that concern seems to have disappeared as the U.S. now has a dedicate military Space Force, co-chaired by the British empire.

Father gives his son some pointers about flying ‘his’ Celestial Eagle. USAF photo by Senior Airman Erik Hofmeyer, 13SEP2007.

In September 2007, an anniversary flight of 76-0084 was arranged, with Major General (retired) Doug Pearson’s son, Captain Todd Pearson (and for those of use in Idaho, this is the Idaho connection), at the controls. It was then that 76-0084 was dubbed ‘Celestial Eagle’. Model builders note that it was not named Celestial Eagle at the time of the launch.

USAF photo by Senior Airman Erik Hofmeyer, 13SEP2007.

08MAR2015, USAF Space Systems Command releases this video about the only launch of ASM-135A:

Computer generated scenario of resulting debris field created by an ASat strike. As you will see by the date code on the video, it was made in 2014, yet the U.S. Air Force didn’t publicly release the video until November 2021: