U.S. airborne laser advances to ‘First Light’
`A Boeing Co.-led team has successfully fired for the first time a powerful laser meant to fly aboard a modified 747 as part of a U.S. ballistic missile defense shield, officials said on Friday.
“It showed they work,” said Kenneth Englade, an agency spokesman, of the laser’s six identical, pickup-truck-sized, modules linked to fire as a single unit. “The rest is fine-tuning.”‘
