The YAL-1A Airborne Laser, a modified Boeing 747-400F, takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on March 15 for a five-hour test mission. During the flight, the aircraft's target illuminator laser fired for the first time. The Airborne Laser is undergoing a long-term test phase at the Air Force Flight Test Center here in preparation for the integration later in the year of the chemical oxygen iodine laser, or COIL, a missile-killing, high-energy chemical laser. ( U.S. Air Force photo/Kellie Masters)