A missile warning satellite and another spacecraft are on their way to orbit to help the US military better track fast-moving threats.
The US military’s two surveillance satellites lifted off today (July 1) on a United Launch Alliance (ULA). Atlas V Rocket that rose from a pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 19:15 EDT (2315 GMT) on a mission for the US Space Force called USSF-12.
The Atlas V first and second stages separated four and a half minutes after liftoff, a milestone soon followed by more than six minutes of the upper stage Centaur engine burning. After two more Centaur burns, the two satellites were ready to be placed in geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of about 22,300 miles (35,900 kilometers). Earth. That happened as planned about six hours after takeoff, ULA officials said via Twitter early Saturday morning (opens in new tab).
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One of the two spacecraft, the Wide Field of View (WFOV) satellite, is the Space Force Space System Command’s (SSC) test platform for a new generation of missile surveillance technology. The other is a satellite bus hosting a series of technology demonstrations for the US Department of Defense (DoD). It is simply called the USSF-12 ring.
Both WFOV and the USSF-12 ring are considered classified payloads in support of national security, so not much information is available for either. However, officials from government agencies and contractors were able to provide some details during a phone call with reporters on Tuesday (June 28).
The USSF-12 ring was built by Northrop Grumman based on the aerospace company’s ESPAStar product line. This ring will be flown for the DoD and will have six unique payload ports and an independent propulsion system, Matt Verock, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of space security, said during the call.
The Department of Defense has not released specifics on these payloads, but the head of the DoD space test program, Lt. Col. Jon Shea said that the USSF-12 ring and its payloads will “deploy important enablers for future capabilities and deliver innovative technologies that will help us move forward…future missions.”
WFOV has an image sensor that is more than 6 feet (about 2 meters) tall. The sensor was built by L3Harris Technologies, a company that also provided optical components for NASA Hubble and James Webb space telescopes and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope currently under development. The sensor was developed for a new type of weapon detection system – the tracking of hypersonic weapons – and WFOV will help SSC calibrate its accuracy.
Russian state media announced a successful test of the country’s new Kinzhal hypersonic missile in 2018 and released animated video of the missile being fired at the United States. The Kinzhal missile is reportedly capable of traveling five times faster than the speed of sound and hitting targets anywhere in the world.
Current space-based weapons tracking systems focus on ballistic missiles, which have limited maneuverability. The Department of Defense has developed a new system, the Overhead Persistent Infrared Program (OPIR), to track next-generation hypersonic threats like the Kinzhal. WFOV is the testbed for these technologies.
“That threat looms right now,” said Col. Heather Bogstie, senior materials manager for the SSC’s Resilient Missile Warning, Tracking and Defense Acquisition Delta, during the call Tuesday. “[WFOV] will really be an important enabler for our future MEO [middle Earth orbit] missile tracking systems.”
She described the WFOV mission as a “digital engineering demo” that “will provide 24/7 coverage of more than 3,000 kilometers [1,860 miles] over the Pacific Theater.”
The WFOV satellite and the USSF-12 ring are designed for mission operations of up to three years. The successors to WFOV, the OPIR program satellites, are scheduled to begin launching as early as 2025, according to an SSC release, with a total of five launches by 2028.
Editor’s note: This story was updated July 2 at 2:45 am EDT with news of the successful satellite deployment.
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