Atlas 5 rocket successfully launches military
satellite
BY JUSTIN
RAY
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: April 3, 2009
It was a perfect Friday night flight for the Atlas 5 rocket,
completing a military mission that put an advanced communications
spacecraft into the sky to serve U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
"We only have one chance to get it right! In this profession you
have to be meticulous to detail and patient to ensure mission
success," said Capt. Jeffrey Fisher, the mission lead.
Patience proved to be a virtue for the team, having experienced a
long wait to see the 19-story rocket and Wideband Global SATCOM 2
spacecraft successfully thunder away from Cape Canaveral's Complex
41.
Technical challenges had held up the launch for several months,
but the main engine and twin solid boosters finally lit at 8:31
p.m. EDT to begin a spectacular nighttime ascent.
About 31 minutes later high over Africa, the rocket's Centaur
upper stage gently released the 12,790-pound satellite into the
planned orbit.
"WGS 2 is truly an amazing spacecraft that will continue to
expand the critical communications capability depended on by the
joint warfighting team," said Col. Michael Moran, commander of the
Atlas Group at the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems
Center.
"Congratulations to the entire team for their hard work and
dedication to the mission," said Brig. Gen. Edward L. Bolton Jr.,
45th Space Wing commander at the Cape. "We're helping to give the
most versatile and sophisticated technology to our
warfighters."
Ground controllers will maneuver the satellite into a circular
geostationary orbit and conduct an extensive testing program to
fully check out the communications gear before the craft can enter
service in September.
"This asset is intended to be on-orbit for 10 to 15 years," said
Lt. Col. John Wagner, commander of the 45th Launch Support Squadron
at the Cape. "This is going to be providing vital information
24/7/365."
The satellite will be parked over the equator around 60 degrees
East longitude for use by U.S. Central Command in Afghanistan, Iraq
and other parts of Southwest Asia, according to Col. William
Harding, vice commander of the Military Satellite Communications
Systems Wing at the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los
Angeles.
"WGS is a force multiplier for our troops in the field who
defend America's freedom everyday," said James Bell, United Launch
Alliance's WGS mission manager for Atlas and Delta.
A half-dozen WGS satellites will be put into space over the next
few years to provide a major upgrade of the military's main
communications infrastructure, replacing the aging Defense
Satellite Communications System (DSCS) spacecraft. Each WGS has 10
times the capacity of a DSCS satellite, allowing users to process
and receive data quicker than ever before.
"The WGS system provides a quantum leap in communications
bandwidth for Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines, and is the
DOD's highest capacity communications satellite," Harding said.
WGS 1 entered service last year to cover the vast Pacific
Command that spans the U.S. western coast all the way to Southeast
Asia.
"Users love it and we expect a similar reaction when we get WGS
2 up over CENTCOM," Harding said.
Built by Boeing, the sophisticated WGS spacecraft are
constructed around the company's powerhouse 702-model design used
by commercial satellite operators. But within the WGS craft are Ka-
and X-band military communications packages to serve forces
stationed around the globe.
The WGS craft offer X-band communications, like the venerable
DSCS satellites, to relay data, photos and video to troops on the
battlefield.
What WGS offers that DSCS does not is Ka-band communications.
Officials describe the extra frequency as a way of serving up large
amounts of information for reception by U.S. and allied forces
across a wide area.
A third WGS satellite is scheduled for launch later this summer
from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta 4 rocket. It will be positioned
over the Eastern Atlantic at an orbital slot of 12 degrees West
longitude, Harding said, for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa
Command operations.
"WGS 3 has also completed a very rigorous test program and sits
in storage in our factory here in El Segundo awaiting its call-up
and launch later this year," said Mark Spiwak, WGS program director
at Boeing.
Three additional satellites with enhanced features, known as WGS
Block 2, are planned to launch in 2011, 2012 and 2013,
respectively. The final one was purchased in cooperation with
Australia.
"The six-vehicle WGS constellation will not only provide much
greater throughput than DSCS, but the number of spacecraft receive
and transmit beams available to support the user community will
also increase more than four-fold, giving the system greater
flexibility, agility and area coverage," said Col. Don Robbins,
commander of the Wideband SATCOM Group at the MILSATCOM Systems
Wing.
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