Missiles Never Failed to Rise in Clinton's Day

The New York Times reports:

An important test of the United States' fledgling missile defense system ended in failure early Wednesday as an interceptor rocket failed to launch on cue from the Marshall Islands, the Pentagon said.

Richard A. Lehner a spokesperson for the Missile Defense Agency said that despite the disappointment, Wednesday's event was not a total failure. He said "quite a bit" had been learned from the aborted test, which he called "a very good training exercise." He said the rocket that failed to rise could be used later. The target splashed down in the ocean some 3,000 miles from Kodiak, he said....

...luckily missing the last family of Kodiak bears that has avoided extinction. Alaskans want to be sure those bears make it till hunting season, after all.

What good news! "Quite a bit" has been learned, indeed. Like the U.S. has blown $80 billion for nothing! And we've also learned that in case we ever need the missile defense shield to function, we can re-use all the interceptor rockets that fail to launch. That is, if anyone is left to try to launch them, since the missile shield, which costs billions of dollars, works as much as Bernie Kerik's "nanny" did. Still, it's good to see the federal government actively buying into the reuse/recycle mindset.