WGS-5 Launch Set for May

The Air Force has scheduled the launch of WGS-5, the fifth Wideband Global Satellite Communications spacecraft, for May 8. The 45th Space Wing, which oversees launch operations at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., has placed the mission on the range schedule for that day, according to a March 29 release from service space officials at Los Angeles AFB, Calif. A United Launch Alliance Delta IV booster will carry WGS-5 into space, where it will join four other WGS assets already operating on orbit. The satellite’s prime contractor Boeing last month announced that WGS-5 had arrived in Titusville, Fla., for final processing prior to the launch. The investigation into the off-nominal performance of a Delta IV last October is still progressing—with completion eyed this month—but the Air Force has “approved processing this mission toward the May 8 launch date,” states the release. (See also Spaceplane Mission Gets the Green Light.)