U.S. Air Force Milstar II satellite shipped to Cape Canaveral for early 2002 launch
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR STATION, Fla., Nov. 14, 2001 — A U.S. Air Force Milstar
II military communications satellite was recently shipped from Lockheed
Martin Space Systems facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif. to the launch site at
Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., where it will be readied for a Jan. 2002
launch aboard a Titan IV/Centaur launch vehicle.
The satellite, designated Milstar Flight 5, is the Defense Department’s most
technologically advanced telecommunications satellite, and is the second to
carry the Medium Data Rate (MDR) payload. Built by Boeing Satellite Systems,
El Segundo, Calif., the MDR payload has 32 channels, which can process data
at speeds of 1.5 megabits per second. The spacecraft also features the Low
Data Rate (LDR) payload, built by TRW Space and Electronics of Redondo
Beach, Calif. TRW also supplies MDR antennas and a digital processor to
Boeing.
Christine Anderson, MILSATCOM Joint Program Office Director, said “this
event is the culmination of years of hard work by the government/industry
team and will provide a significant increase in communications capability
for the military forces.”
Milstar’s “switchboard-in-space” concept allows communications links to be
established rapidly and is a revolutionary departure from current
communications systems. The spacecraft constellation provides protected,
global communication links for the joint forces of the U.S. military and can
transmit voice, data, and imagery, in addition to offering video
teleconferencing capabilities. Milstar Flight 5 will increase the Milstar
constellation’s capability to provide near-global coverage for the nation’s
strategic forces, Air Force’s space warning assets and operationally
deployed military forces.
The Milstar team is led by the MILSATCOM Joint Program Office at the U.S.
Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base,
Calif. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale Operations, is the prime
contractor and lead systems integrator. Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS)
provides the Medium Data Rate payload and crosslink subsystem, and TRW Space
& Electronics Group provides the Low Data Rate payload.
The Milstar National Team members are preparing the spacecraft for its
scheduled launch in January 2002. The final Milstar satellite – Flight 6 –
is scheduled for launch in November 2002.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, headquartered in Denver, Colo., is
one of the major operating units of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Space
Systems designs, develops, tests, manufactures and operates a variety of
advanced technology systems for military, civil and commercial customers.
Chief products include space launch and ground systems, remote sensing and
communications satellites for commercial and government customers, advanced
space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft, fleet ballistic missiles
and missile defense systems.
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NOTE TO EDITORS: Low- and high-resolution JPEG image files of Milstar are
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