$6.5M more for WG Satellite #3 Launch Support
Boeing Satellite Systems in Los Angeles, CA received a $6.5 million firm-fixed-price contract modification authorizing Satellite 3 launch services to provide launch support and early operations, including orbit-raising on-orbit checkout for Wideband Gapfiller Satellite Flight 3. Boeing Satellite Systems will accomplish this work at their El Segundo, CA facility, Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, FL, and at other locations as required.
Upon its first launch into geosynchronous orbit in FY06, WGS Flight 1 will be the U.S. Department of Defense’s highest capacity communication satellite.
These satellites will support the DoD’s warfighting information exchange requirements, enabling execution of tactical command and control, communications, and computers; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR); battle management; and combat support information.
The WGS program is actually a set of 13-kilowatt spacecraft based upon Boeing’s 702 satellite model. Each satellite can route 2.4 to 3.6 Gbps of data – providing more than 10 times the communications capacity of the predecessor DSCS III satellite. Using reconfigurable antennas and a digital channelizer, WGS also offers added flexibility to tailor coverage areas and to connect X-band and Ka-band users anywhere within the satellite’s field of view.
Five satellites are currently planned to be on-orbit, augmenting X-band communications now provided by the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) and one-way Ka-band service provided by the Global Broadcast Service (GBS). Additionally, WGS will provide a new two-way Ka-band service.
The U.S. MILSATCOM Joint Program Office (MJPO), Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), is responsible for development, acquisition and sustainment of the WGS Program. The first Wideband Gapfiller Satellite will be launched in FY06, and will be followed by two more satellites in FY06 and FY07. Both the Delta IV and Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV) will be used. Satellites 4 and 5 are anticipated for launches later.
This contract action will not lengthen the period of performance beyond the current overall period of performance on contract, and work will be complete by January 2007. The Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA issued the contract (F04701-00-C-0011, P00105).
Additional Readings
