Lockheed Martin will launch the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite into space aboard an Atlas V rocket, reports Reuters news service. Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, head of Space and Missile Systems Center, told Reuters Tuesday that a deal had been struck. He would not elaborate. Lockheed also is under contract to provide three AEHF satellites, the first of which is expected to launch in April 2008. Still to play out are the launch arrangements under the now-approved United Launch Alliance, an amalgam of Lockheed and Boeing to provide launch services.
With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.