SBIRS-GEO 4 - Atlas V 411 (AV-076) - Canaveral SLC-41 - 20.01.2018 00:52 UTC

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James Dean‏Подлинная учетная запись @flatoday_jdean 10 ч. назад

SMC reports Halloween delivery of SBIRS GEO Flight 4 missile warning satellite to Cape Canaveral ahead of January launch on ULA Atlas V.

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http://www.patrick.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1360734/sbirs-geo-flight-4-arrives-in-florida-prepares-for-january-launch/

SBIRS GEO Flight-4 arrives in Florida, prepares for January launch
By SPACE & MISSILE SYSTEMS CENTER (AFSPC) / Published November 02, 2017

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. --

The U.S. Air Force's Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) program completed a major program milestone on Oct. 31, 2017, successfully delivering a Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite Flight-4 to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Спойлер

"The delivery, launch, and successful operation of GEO Flight-4 will mark the fulfillment of the original SBIRS baseline constellation and reaffirm our commitment to provide our country, warfighters, and senior leaders with timely, reliable, and accurate missile warning and infrared surveillance information," said Lt. Gen. John Thompson, SMC commander and Air Force program executive officer for space.

The delivery of GEO Flight-4 sets the path for final checkout of the space vehicle before launch. The satellite will be processed at the Payload Processing Facility located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

A combined government and contractor team is already executing the final ground activities including a Launch Base Confidence Test to verify satellite integrity after shipment, an intersegment test to verify communication compatibility from the satellite to the on-orbit operations center and the final battery reconditioning for launch. Following these activities, the satellite will be fueled and prepared for integration with the Atlas V rocket.

"Finalizing the preparations for the fourth launch of a SBIRS GEO satellite is a big deal," added Col. Dennis Bythewood, director of the Remote Sensing Systems Directorate. "The entire team understands how significant this is, and we're ready to make it happen," The GEO Flight-4 satellite is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in January 2018.

The satellite was transported from the Lockheed Martin satellite integration facility in Sunnyvale, California, via a C-5 Galaxy aircraft. The C-5 crew from the 22nd Airlift Squadron, Travis AFB, California, ensured the satellite was transported safely and according to the time sensitive schedule. The security support provided by the 129th Rescue Wing, California Air National Guard, was essential to the success of the mission.

"The safety of the SBIRS satellite was entrusted to the very best, and we are appreciative of the transport and security services provided by the entire government and contractor team," Lt. Gen. Thompson said.

The SBIRS constellation is designed to replace the legacy Defense Support Program satellite constellation. SBIRS will continue to provide significantly enhanced capabilities to support missile warning, missile defenses, battlespace awareness and technical intelligence missions.

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SBIRS GEO Flight 4 Delivery Ready for January Launch

Space and Missile Systems Center Los Angeles AFB

Опубликовано: 17 нояб. 2017 г.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7DDOA2c1BYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7DDOA2c1BY (2:53)

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/12/29/rocket-and-satellite-preps-on-track-for-next-atlas-5-launch/

Rocket and satellite preps on track for next Atlas 5 launch
December 29, 2017 Stephen Clark


File photo of an Atlas 5 first stage booster being raised at the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad. Credit: ULA

Final assembly of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket slated to blast off Jan. 18 with a U.S. Air Force surveillance satellite designed to detect missile attacks has begun at the booster's Cape Canaveral launch pad.

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The Atlas 5's first stage was stacked on top of a mobile platform inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad early last week. It was to be followed by the hoisting of the Atlas 5's Centaur upper stage and a single strap-on solid rocket booster.

The first Atlas 5 launch of 2018, and the 75th overall, will propel the Air Force's fourth Space Based Infrared System satellite toward a perch in geostationary orbit approximately 22,300 miles (35,800 kilometers) over the equator.

Liftoff Jan. 18 is set for approximately 7:40 p.m. EST (0040 GMT on Jan. 19) at the opening of a 40-minute launch window.

The SBIRS GEO Flight 4 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, will join three others launched since 2011 to provide early warning of missile launches heading for the United States and its allies, including those potentially carrying nuclear weapons.

The launch will complete the deployment of the initial SBIRS fleet, comprising four geostationary satellites with scanning and staring infrared sensors providing global coverage, and four piggyback infrared telescopes carried by classified National Reconnaissance Office spy satellites in oval-shaped orbits suited to detect missiles flying over the North Pole.


The Air Force's SBIRS GEO Flight 4 satellite pictured at its Lockheed Martin factory in Sunnyvale, California. Credit: Lockheed Martin

The Air Force has ordered two additional SBIRS geostationary spacecraft from Lockheed Martin for launch in the early 2020s.

The SBIRS early warning network follows the Air Force's Defense Support Program satellites, which began supplying missile detection services to the U.S. military in the 1970s.

The SBIRS satellites can also register other bright infrared emissions coming from wildfires, meteors, satellite re-entries nuclear detonations.

"The delivery, launch, and successful operation of GEO Flight 4 will mark the fulfillment of the original SBIRS baseline constellation and reaffirm our commitment to provide our country, warfighters, and senior leaders with timely, reliable, and accurate missile warning and infrared surveillance information." said Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center and Air Force program executive officer for space.

The SBIRS GEO Flight 4 satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral on Oct. 31 after a cross-country flight aboard an Air Force C-5 Galaxy cargo plane from its Lockheed Martin factory in Sunnyvale, California.

After completing post-shipment tests and other customary checks on the satellite, officials gave the go-ahead earlier this month to begin fueling the spacecraft with maneuvering propellant. The on-board fuel is required for the satellite to climb into its final circular geostationary orbit after a drop-off by the Atlas 5 rocket in an elliptical transfer orbit, then to keep the spacecraft operational throughout its 12-year design lifetime.

Once technicians finish fueling the satellite, it will be fixed to the Atlas 5's payload adapter and enclosed inside its nose cone, then transported to the Complex 41 launch pad for attachment to the rocket.

The three previous SBIRS geostationary satellites launched in 2011, 2013 and in January aboard the basic "401" version of ULA's Atlas 5 rocket, which does not use any solid rocket boosters. SBIRS GEO Flight 4 will launch with the Atlas 5-411 configuration, with a single solid rocket booster and a four-meter-diameter (13.1-foot) payload fairing.

The change will allow the Centaur upper stage to make a controlled de-orbit and re-entry after it releases the SBIRS GEO Flight 4 satellite, a measure to prevent the flight from adding to space debris in Earth orbit.

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Los Angeles Air Force Base, Home of Space and Missile Systems Center
19 декабря в 23:38 ·

SBIRS GEO Flight-4 satellite fueling operations authorized;
Prepares for encapsulation

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. -- Preparations for the January 2018 launch of the fourth Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite, commonly called GEO Flight-4, are underway at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Having verified satellite integrity after successful delivery from Sunnyvale, California to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, the SBIRS team was approved to start fueling operations for GEO Flight-4.

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Proper fueling is crucial to the mission team's efforts to use GEO Flight-4's satellite propulsion system to guide the satellite to its geosynchronous orbit following separation from a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The GEO Flight-4 space vehicle will be loaded with sufficient fuel to reach its intended orbit and to maintain its proper orbit over its design life of twelve years.

The SBIRS constellation is designed to replace the legacy Defense Support Program satellite constellation. SBIRS will continue to provide significantly enhanced capabilities to support missile warning, missile defense, battlespace awareness and technical intelligence missions.

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[Безумный Шляпник]

Граждане пишут, что дополнительный ТТУ (411-й Атлас вместо 401-го) понадобился потому, планируется утопить "Центавр" после отделения ПН. Как бы логично, но вот смена очередности запусков (SV4 улетел впереди SV3) и использование более мощной ракеты наводит на мысль - а не решили ли они экстренно воткнуть на SV3 какую-нибудь дополнительную ПН?

[us2-star]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSQ5Sd5vMQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSQ5Sd5vMQ

[us2-star]

Сегодняшний запланированный полет ракеты "Атлас 5" был отложен по крайней мере на 24 часа до вечера пятницы после того, как стартовая группа столкнулась с проблемами с клапаном для заливки и слива жидкого кислорода в первой ступени Атлас 5.

[LRV_75]

Это означает, что на 24 часа перенесен прожиг FH

[us2-star]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV03W0mnxkI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV03W0mnxkI

[zandr]

Улетела.
 

[zandr]

+ 2 мин

[zandr]

+ 7 мин
 

[zandr]

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4888402

НЬЮ-ЙОРК, 20 января. /ТАСС/. Американская ракета-носитель Atlas V со спутником GEO-4 военного назначения стартовала 19 января с космодрома на мысе Канаверал (штат Флорида). Трансляцию ведет компания United Launch Alliance (ULA), отвечающая за пуск.
GEO-4 предназначен для оперативного предупреждения о применении боевых ракет. Пуск первоначально был намечен на 18 января, но был отложен из-за технической неисправности. "Мы подтверждаем отделение нижней ступени ракеты. Все системы работают нормально", - сообщили в ULA.
Масса GEO-4 составляет около 4,5 т, его срок службы - около 12 лет. Аппарат должен стать частью создаваемой американскими ВВС Инфракрасной системы космического базирования (ИСКБ, SBIRS). Цели и задачи системы ограничиваются наблюдением и передачей на Землю данных о ракетных запусках.

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В ИСКБ в настоящее время входят около 10 спутников, в том числе выведенные соответственно в 2011, 2013 и 2017 годах на орбиту GEO-1, GEO-2 и GEO-3. Все эти аппараты, как и GEO-4, созданы корпорацией Lockheed Martin. Спутники GEO, оснащенные инфракрасными сенсорами, должны вести круглосуточное наблюдение за определенными объектами на Земле.
ULA - совместное предприятие американских корпораций Boeing и Lockheed Martin. Основы ИСКБ были заложены в США в 1995 году

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[us2-star]

LRV_75 пишет:
Это означает, что на 24 часа перенесен прожиг FH

Теперь мыс Канаверал в полном распоряжении СпейсИкс до 1 марта? 

[LRV_75]

us2-star пишет:

LRV_75 пишет:
Это означает, что на 24 часа перенесен прожиг FH

Теперь мыс Канаверал в полном распоряжении СпейсИкс до 1 марта?  

Да! Можно жечь! )))

[zandr]

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/01/atlas-v-sbirs-geo-4-launch-cape-canaveral/

Atlas V launches with SBIRS GEO-4
written by William Graham

United Launch Alliance's Atlas V has launched on her seventy-fifth flight, lofting the SBIRS GEO-4, a missile early warning satellite. Following a scrub on Thursday, Friday's attempt was issue free, launching at the opening of the window at 19:48 Eastern time (00:48 UTC on Saturday).
 SBIRS GEO-4 is the fourth geostationary satellite in the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS), a constellation of satellites that use infrared sensors to detect and track missile launches.
Replacing the Defense Support Program (DSP), a fleet of satellites that began watching for missile launches in the 1960s, SBIRS is designed to provide the United States with advance warning of an enemy nuclear strike, while also allowing the country to monitor other missile and rocket launches around the world.
In addition to its geostationary satellites, SBIRS also uses sensors mounted aboard satellites in highly elliptical orbit (HEO). Piggybacked on the National Reconnaissance Office's Trumpet-class signals intelligence satellites, these SBIRS-HEO sensors provide additional observations of Earth's polar regions, which are less visible from geostationary orbit.

SBIRS – via Lockheed Martin
SBIRS was also to have incorporated satellites in low Earth orbit, SBIRS-LOW, however these were canceled long before deployment was to have begun. The Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) was developed instead, using hardware that had originally been built for SBIRS.
As well as detecting missile launches, SBIRS is also used for intelligence-gathering, helping to identify and characterize events that result in the emission of infrared radiation and to improve general battlefield awareness.
The SBIRS GEO-4 satellite was constructed by Lockheed Martin. Based on the A2100M platform, it carries two infrared sensors: a scanning sensor which watches the full disc of the Earth for infrared events and a "staring" sensor to detect smaller short-range missiles which do not produce as much infrared radiation. The satellite has a mass of about 4,500 kilograms (9,920 lb) and is intended for a twelve-year mission.

SBIRS GEO-4 – Photo by Lockheed Martin/ULA
GEO-4 was the third geostationary SBIRS satellite to be built, Satellite Vehicle 3 (SV-3). Construction of the satellite was completed before it was required to launch, so the spacecraft was placed into storage. The US Air Force later opted to launch Satellite Vehicle 4 (SV-4) first as SBIRS GEO-3, saving the cost of putting the newly-completed SV-4 into storage and additional testing that would be needed upon taking it back out.
SBIRS GEO-4 will join the three existing geostationary satellites and four SBIRS HEO sensors in orbit. The previous geostationary satellites were deployed in May 2011, March 2013 and January 2017. Two further GEO satellites, GEO-5 and GEO-6, were ordered in 2012 for launch in the early 2020s.
...

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Rocket Cam! Atlas V Launches SBIRS GEO Flight 4

United Launch Alliance

Опубликовано: 30 янв. 2018 г.

ULA's Atlas V rocket successfully launched the SBIRS GEO Flight 4 mission for the U.S. Air Force on Jan. 19, 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69J0TNoQoghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X69J0TNoQog (8:21)

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https://www.losangeles.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1869033/sbirs-geo-4-successfully-achieves-operational-acceptance/

SBIRS GEO-4 Successfully Achieves Operational Acceptance
SMC Public Affairs / Published June 06, 2019

LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --
The Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellite (GEO-4) successfully achieved Air Force Space Command operational acceptance. The satellite is healthy and sending data to the Mission Control Station, operated by the 460th Space Wing located at Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado.

SBIRS GEO-4, built by Lockheed Martin, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 booster on January 20, 2017. Upon separation from the booster, satellite operations personnel began a series of planned Liquid Apogee Engine transfer orbit maneuvers to place the spacecraft safely into its final orbit. GEO-4 reached its intended orbit and began spacecraft checkout activities by deploying the satellite's light shade, solar array wing assemblies, and antenna wing assemblies. With the spacecraft safely on orbit, sensor testing and checkout activities began, leading to a tuned and calibrated payload ready for warfighter use.

"Successful completion of operational testing and on-orbit performance resulted in Air Force Space Command operationally accepting the SBIRS GEO-4 satellite into the missile warning architecture to sustain war-winning capabilities for our nation," said Col Ricky Hunt, senior materiel leader and OPIR Satellite Systems chief. "This milestone achievement is a true testament to the years of hard work put in by the combined SBIRS Government-Contractor team, past and present".

Спойлер

SBIRS GEO-4, along with other on-orbit GEO satellites and Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) sensors, provides worldwide infrared coverage as the Air Force replaces the legacy Defense Support Program missile warning and missile detection satellites that began operations over 45 years ago.

The Remote Sensing Systems Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB in Los Angeles, California manages the SBIRS program. Lockheed Martin Space, Sunnyvale, California, is the SBIRS prime contractor, and Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, Azusa, California, is the payload integrator. The 460th Space Wing at Buckley AFB in Aurora, Colorado, operates the SBIRS constellation. The SBIRS program delivers timely, reliable and accurate missile-warning and infrared surveillance information to the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, combatant commanders, the intelligence community and other key decision makers. The system's enhanced global missile launch detection capability, supports the nation's ballistic missile defense system, expands the country's technical intelligence gathering capacity and bolsters situational awareness for warfighters on the battlefield.

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