It’s tempting to think of a ballistic missile’s flight as one long arc. But missile strikes can be divided into three parts, each with a usual range of lengths.
For better or worse, the ballistic missile is one of the greatest accomplishments of modern engineering. It’s a massive, unmanned propulsion device designed to launch an explosive payload hundreds to thousands of miles away depending on the ballistic missile type, possibly as far as another continent. Not only that, but how long it would take for a missile from Russia to reach the U.S. is around 30 minutes, a far cry from the multi-hour trek it would take for a person to travel so far. It would be nice if such an incredible achievement weren’t a tool of war, but nothing propels science forward quite like weapons research.
As impressive as a ballistic missile is in the broad scale, the science of it should not be undersold. While people talk about launching missiles being as simple as „pushing the button“, it’s actually a very complex system of targeting and acceleration, broken up into three phases: Boost, Midcourse, and Terminal. Not only does the missile need to be perfectly managed during these phases, but it all needs to happen in that span of 30 minutes.The Boost Phase lasts several minutes
The first — and second-shortest — phase of a missile strike is the Boost Phase. In this phase, the missile takes off from the initial launch point and begins its flight into the Earth’s atmosphere, where it can establish the arc of its trajectory. Because the missile’s boosters are so powerful, it doesn’t take very long for the missile to reach the end of this first phase, at which point the boosters are disengaged and the missile begins cruising unpowered.
