Boeing shipped the sixth Wideband Global Satellite Communications spacecraft from the company’s manufacturing plant in El Segundo, Calif., to the Kennedy Space Center on the central Florida coast in preparation for its launch into space later this year, announced the company. The satellite left El Segundo on May 16 and arrived the next day in Florida, Boeing spokeswoman Cassaundra Bantly told the Daily Report on Monday. WGS-6 will undergo tests, fueling, and integration at Astrotech’s facility in Titusville before its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, states the company’s release. The arrival of WGS-6 comes as the Air Force and its industry partners undertake final steps for Wednesday’s scheduled launch of WGS-5 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral.
The Pentagon is significantly bolstering airpower near Venezuela, dispatching the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to Latin America, it said in an Oct. 24 statement. The announcement came just hours after U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers and other U.S. assets flew near the Venezuelan coast on Oct. 23.
