Tuesday, January 05, 2010

ULA wins WGS contract

-A WGS-3 launch

After successfully launching a third Wideband Global SATCOM satellite last month, United Launch Alliance has been awarded a contract for a fourth high-capacity communications satellite that will help the U.S. military in its ever more complex foreign battles.

The scheduled launch window is late 2011 to early 2012 from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The award from the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center comes at a time ULA has just completed laying off 22 of about 700 workers at the Cape and when the shuttle program is nearing an end, which will cost the jobs of up to 7,000 space industry workers.

"A launch like this that we can bring to the Cape we hope is viewed as good news by the launch industry and the community," ULA spokesman Michael Rein said.

No further ULA layoffs are planned for 2010, Rein said.



Additionally, the company has 10 launches scheduled for 2010 between California and Cape Canaveral launch sites. ULA completed 16 launches in 2009.

The 7,600-pound WGS satellites help the military with command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. WGS-4 will join the WGS-1, 2 and 3 satellites in orbit. WGS-1 and WGS-2 were launched previously on ULA Atlas V rockets on Oct. 10, 2007 and Apr. 3, 2009 respectfully. WGS-3 was launched on a Delta IV on Dec. 5, 2009.

"United Launch Alliance is proud to continue our vital role in providing the latest technology for the war fighter," Michael Gass, ULA president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "The WGS constellation was the first series of satellites to launch on both the Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles since the inception of ULA. This operational flexibility for our government customers was a primary reason for the creation of ULA."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"ULA wins"...was there an alternative?

Anonymous said...

Yeah!Congratulations!God's speed!

Anonymous said...

Glorified Social Welfare Program that makes Defense Contractors Super Rich.

Anonymous said...

I am an employee of one of the Glorified Welfare Programs and in a sick and twisted way I look forward to the layoffs in the feeble hope that those that hate the space program will see finally what exactly the 'welfare program' brings to the world. I can dream, can't I?

Anonymous said...

why didn't spacex win this?