Techn
icians at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., recently encapsulated the first Wideband Global Satellite, working toward an Oct. 9 launch date aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. The WGS system is slated to replace the two-decade-old Defense Satellite Communication System and greatly surpass its capability. In fact, Col. Donald Robbins, who heads the WGS effort for Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, said that the launch of WGS SV-1 put us on “the cusp of providing more capacity than the entire on-orbit” DSCS constellation.
The Space Development Agency is set to launch 21 Tranche 1 data transport satellites on Oct. 5—its fourth Tranche 1 mission since last fall and the first to carry Northrop Grumman-built satellites.