The Air Force and Lockheed Martin last week successfully completed the first stage of raising the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite into its operational orbit, announced Air Force Space Command Officials. AEHF-2 has also successfully deployed its solar array to generate onboard electrical power, they said. The first-stage liquid apogee engine burn “marks the completion of approximately 60 percent of AEHF-2’s total orbit-raising activity,” said Col. Michael Sarchet, AEHF program manager, in AFSPC’s May 17 release. The crucial burn “raised the satellite above the Van Allen radiation belts and region of space with the densest space debris,” he added. Next up is the orbit-raising stage using the satellite’s Hall Current Thruster, which will gradually dampen AEHF’s current elliptical orbits until the satellite reaches its intended geosynchronous perch. AEHF-2 blasted off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., on May 4. It joined AEHF-1, which earlier this year completed on-orbit testing. The AEHF constellation is meant to replace the military’s MILSTAR communications satellites.
Since President Donald Trump first unveiled his “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative in late January, much of the focus for it has been focused on space—how the Pentagon may deploy dozens, if not hundreds, of sensors and interceptors into orbit to protect the continental U.S. from missile barrages. But the Air…