DF-2: I'm coming, South Pacific!

At the same time Qian Wushi and the others gazed up at the sky.

Whoosh.

Ten seconds after lifting off from Jiuquan Base.

The DF-2 ballistic missile's next sequence activated automatically, immediately entering the programmed turn phase.

Rumble.

The gimbals and vectoring engines fitted to the main engine began applying a deflecting force to the missile, and it slowly started to tilt.

This was also a very common part of rocket launches. It involved the concept of orbital inclination.

As the name suggested, orbital inclination referred to the angle between a spacecraft's orbit and the equator.

This allowed a rocket to experience less aerodynamic stress. It also let it use Earth's gravity rather than its own fuel to change direction, saving more fuel for horizontal flight.

The usual formula was the International Space Station's orbital inclination of 51.65 degrees minus the local latitude. For example, Jiuquan lay at 41 degrees north, so the DF-2 missile's orbital inclination was 10.65°.

That was why, when people later watched rocket launches, they noticed the rockets always seemed to tilt more and more as they rose.

Guided by the deflecting force.

The DF-2 slowly began to turn, while still climbing at an extremely high speed.

For most surface-to-air missiles, their effective combat altitude did not exceed 24,000 meters.

Above that altitude, the air was too thin. A missile's wings could no longer control it well enough to turn quickly, making it unsuitable for engaging small targets and fit only for attacking large, non-maneuvering ones.

Their maximum combat altitude generally did not exceed 45,000 meters, either, and at that height they could only shoot down large, slow-moving balloons.

Intercontinental missiles, however, were different.

Their theoretical apogees usually reached 800 kilometers, and some could even exceed a thousand—though, of course, that referred to intercontinental missiles built