Military Satellite "Healthy" After Friday Launch

An advanced military communications satellite that launched Friday night from Cape Canaveral is "healthy" and ready for operational tests, the Boeing Co. announced today.

The second Boeing-built Wideband Global SATCOM, or WGS, satellite blasted off at 8:31 p.m. Friday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, and separated from the Centaur upper stage about 31 minutes later.

Boeing said the spacecraft's first signals were received within 45 minutes by a ground station in Dongara, Australia, and controllers in El Segundo, Calif., later confirmed the satellite was functioning properly.

The Air Force expects the satellite to be fully activated by September, when it will begin assisting warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan and cover a region that includes Southeast Asia.

The Air Force is gradually phasing out the Defense Satellite Communications System constellation that has served as the Department of Defense's communications "backbone" for more than 20 years.

The first WGS satellite - each with 10 times more capability than the entire DSCS constellation, according to the Air Force - launched from the Cape on an Atlas V on Oct. 10, 2007.

The third, which is the last of a first block deal worth $790 million, is targeted for launch this summer.

At least two more WGS satellites, and a likely sixth, are expected to be built and launched as part of a second block order.

Check out this Boeing WGS product card for more on information.

This summer's launch will utilize a ULA Delta IV vehicle. The launch is intended to demonstrate the assured access to space offered by the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program, for which the Atlas V and Delta IV were developed.

ULA, a joint venture formed in 2006 between Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp., builds and launches both rockets.

The company has about 760 employees based on Cape Canaveral, out of 4,100 nationally.

Click here to read a FLORIDA TODAY story about one of those workers, second-generation Atlas hand Mike Phillipp of Canaveral Groves.

Friday's launch was the 15th Atlas V launch since 2002, each delivering its payload to the right orbit.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the artist's rendering of the Boeing-built WGS-2 military communications satellite, which launched Friday night from Cape Canaveral Air Station on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Source: Boeing. Below: An image of one of the againg Defense Satellite Communication System spacecraft that the WGS constellation will eventually replace. Source: Air Force.