Space surveillance sat must wait

March 31st, 2009 | National Space Symposium | Posted by Ben Iannotta

Boeing and Ball Aerospace have finished building and testing the U.S. Air Force’s Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite. Now they need a rocket to send it to orbit, where it would use its electro-optical camera to track and image geosynchronous satellites and space debris.

The SBSS satellite was scheduled to ride into space “about now” on an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur 4 rocket, said Boeing’s Todd Citron, who oversees the program. But the U.S. Air Force is awaiting the results of an investigation into a February launch failure involving a similar Orbital Sciences rocket, the Taurus. That rocket deposited a NASA carbon-monitoring satellite into the Pacific Ocean instead of low-Earth orbit.

The contractors are anxious to see SBSS reach space successfully, and soon. The February destruction of an Iridium satellite in a collision with a defunct Russian communications satellite has renewed emphasis on space surveillance in the U.S. and among commercial satellite operators.

 A successful SBSS mission  could “drive a demand for follow-ons,” said Ball’s Fred Doyle, vice president and general manager of national defense programs fro the company.

Boeing is the SBSS prime contractor and is providing the ground control equipment and software at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. Ball built the spacecraft’s frame and attached its moveable camera.

Tags: Air Force, Ball Aerospace, Boeing, rocket OCO SBSS Ball Aerospace, SBSS

Read more | Comments (0)