Zenith Star

Zenith Star was a Directed-energy weapon that started development as part of the US Strategic Defense Initiative.[1]

For other uses, see Zenith § Zenith star.

It included the Alpha laser, a high energy hydrogen fluoride chemical laser, and the LAMP mirror which was a 7 segment adaptive optics mirror.[2]

Zenith Star was never put in orbit, but the Alpha LAMP Integration (ALI) project carried out some ground-based tests.[3]: 20 

History

Legacy

Around 1998 Space-Based lasers were reconsidered and led to the Space Based Laser - Integrated Flight eXperiment (SBL-IFX) project 2000-2002.[4][5]

See also
  • Project Excalibur – Anti-missile system using an X-ray laser powered by a nuclear bomb

References
  1. AND THEN THERE WAS ZENITH STAR. 1987
  2. Zenith Star: An SDI demonstration 1987 2 pages, with 3 photos
  3. Adaptive Optics Engineering Handbook
  4. The Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment: Global Missile Defense in the Boost Phase Team SBL
  5. Overview of the space-based laser (SBL) program J.F.Riker 2002

Further reading
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