"This is a better way of doing business," Colonel Crosier said. "It won't be a cold handoff. When we do the handover ... we'll have a team that has hands-on experience working with the WGS satellite on orbit." Boeing will transfer Satellite Control Authority to 3rd SOPS in about 90 days after completing a rigorous series of tests on WGS SV-1's systems.

SV-1's final orbit will be in the geosynchronous belt, approximately 23,000 miles above the Earth. Its orbit shortly after launch was highly elliptical, with a closest approach of less than 250 miles and an apogee of more than 36,000 miles. Boeing and 3rd SOPS will fire maneuvering thrusters on the satellite over the next two weeks to nudge it into a circular orbit, said 3rd SOPS' Maj. Tracy Patton.

Once the satellite is in its proper orbit, operators will test the satellite's functionality to ensure it suffered no damage through the vibration and G-forces of liftoff.

WGS SV-1 launched at 8:22 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time from Space Launch Complex 41 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. It the first in a planned constellation of six $300-million vehicles, each of which will have communications capabilities equal to 12 Defense Satellite Communications System-III satellites. WGS is the successor to DSCS-III, recapitalizing a fleet whose first satellite launched Oct. 30, 1982.

Airmen with 3rd SOPS will control the WGS platform, according to a ULA SV-1 fact sheet. Soldiers at four Army wideband satellite operations centers will conduct payload command and control.

The WGS SV-1 mission is the 11th flight of an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral AFS and extends Air Force Space Command's string of consecutive successful launches to 52.

The Air Force originally planned to deploy five WGS satellites but expanded the program to six through an agreement with the Australian Defence Force. The $707-million partnership encompasses the sixth satellite, associated ground infrastructure and upkeep, according to a report in the Oct. 4 Wall Street Journal.

earlier related report
Boeing Advanced Military Satellite Begins On-Orbit Checkout
St. Louis (SPX) Oct. 11 - Boeing has acquired signals from the first Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite, a new military spacecraft that will help meet the growing demand for military satellite communications by providing a 10-fold increase in telecommunications capacity over the satellite it will replace.

The satellite -- the first of five that Boeing is building for the U.S. Air Force -- was successfully launched at 8:22 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 10 by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Fla. Following a nominal 45-minute flight, the launch vehicle's upper stage deployed the spacecraft, and a ground station in Dongara, Australia received the satellite's first signals 47 minutes later at 9:09 p.m. Eastern. Boeing controllers in El Segundo, Calif., confirmed that the satellite is healthy.

"This successful launch and spacecraft acquisition represents the culmination of tremendous teamwork by our U.S. Air Force customer, The Aerospace Corporation and The Boeing Company," said Howard Chambers, vice president and general manager, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. "The military's demand for communications capabilities is increasing exponentially, and this WGS satellite, along with the others in the series, will provide critical communications services to the warfighters who will depend on its services."

Following a series of orbital maneuvers and in-orbit testing, the satellite is expected to begin Air Force service during the first quarter of 2008

The WGS series of satellites will augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communication System constellation as well as the Global Broadcast Service function currently provided by the U.S. Navy's Ultra High Frequency Follow-On satellites, which were built by Boeing. It also will reduce the U.S. government's reliance on commercial satellite communications services.

WGS is a Boeing 702 spacecraft that operates at both X-band and Ka-band frequencies, and provides many important operational features that are not available from any other MILSATCOM system. For example, WGS has 18 reconfigurable coverage areas and the ability to broadcast or multicast transmissions into the various coverage areas and connect users between any and all coverage areas even when operating on different frequency bands.

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