Last week was pretty good for Boeing’s El Segundo satellite team. The engineers and technicians made initial contact with a newly launched spacecraft, plus the U.S. Air Force exercised options for two additional satellites.
“WGS-4 continues Boeing’s commitment of supporting the Air Force’s mission of delivering critical communications to warfighters,” said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems. He made the comments in a statement after the company made first contact with a newly launched satellite. “The company will remain focused, committed and dedicated to this mission as we continue to build the WGS series of satellites.”
Boeing engineers received the first on-orbit signals from the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite on January 19, 2012. The signals indicate that WGS-4 is healthy and ready to begin orbital maneuvers and operational testing.
Following the orbital maneuvers and on-orbit tests, WGS-4 will be placed into geosynchronous Earth orbit. The satellite joins WGS-1, which entered service over the Pacific Ocean in April 2008; WGS-2, which began operations over the Middle East in August 2009; and WGS-3, which entered service over the Atlantic Ocean in June 2010. Together, the four WGS satellites will provide assured access to high-data-rate, jam-resistant communications for U.S. forces and allies around the world.
Contact with the satellite was made at a ground station in Dongara, Australia 58 minutes after launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Shortly after the contact, Boeing’s Mission Control Center in El Segundo confirmed the satellite was functioning normally.
The day before last week’s launch, Boeing received authorization from the U.S. Air Force to produce and launch the eighth and ninth Wideband Global SATCOM satellites. The WGS-9 authorization and the WGS-8 production option, which was authorized last month, have a combined value of $673 million and are part of the $1.09 billion contract modification announced by the Air Force in September 2011.
“With these options exercised, we are able to expand the WGS constellation and provide communications resiliency for combatant commanders worldwide,” said Boeing’s Cooning. “This will give warfighters the ability to ensure that vital communication links are available at all times, even in the event that one or more critical nodes are disabled.”
WGS-8 and -9 will join four other satellites that are part of the Block II series. Last week’s successful launch of WGS-4 put the first Block II spacecraft in orbit. Block II adds a switchable radio frequency bypass that enables the transmission of airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance imagery at data rates approximately three times greater than the rates available on Block I satellites.
WGS-9 is being funded through a cooperative agreement that the U.S. Air Force has forged with Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and New Zealand. This expands the WGS international partnership beyond WGS-6, which was funded by the Australian government in 2008.
“International participation in WGS is a win-win arrangement on many levels,” said Cooning. “Use of common SATCOM systems provides communications interoperability between allied forces. For the U.S. military, the partners bring additional funding to expand the constellation and make it more resilient. And for a relatively modest investment, international partners receive immediate access to worldwide services that they might not otherwise be able to obtain.”
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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