On Thursday, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket successfully launched an early warning satellite worth $1.2 billion into orbit. It is the sixth and last ship in a global fleet that is constantly scanning the skies for hypersonic, in-theater, and strategic missile threats.
“The threats are quickly evolving and modernizing,” Col. Brian Denaro, U.S. Space Force program executive for Space Sensing, said before launch. “Part of that evolution is a range of capabilities that are not only more unpredictable, but they’re dimmer, they’re burning faster. Bottom line, they’re harder to see.
“It’s absolutely critical that our integrated family of systems that provide this overhead persistent IR (infrared) capability are not only able to detect the missiles, we’re able to track them throughout their flight and then report on those events on a timeline that’s relevant to being able to engage those targets.”
The Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit — SBIRS GEO 6 — satellite relied on the Atlas 5’s Russian-built RD-180 first stage engine to blast it out of the lower atmosphere in a dramatic early morning rise to space, serving as an ironic reminder of former economic ties.
At 6:29 a.m. EDT, 17 minutes before sunrise, the RD-180 and two Northrop Grumman strap-on solid-fuel boosters exploded with a flash of explosive exhaust, swiftly ejecting the 194-foot-tall rocket from launch pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
After the strap-on boosters separated, the exhaust plume narrowed to a stunning white trail, creating a high-altitude spectacle that could be seen for dozens of kilometers around as the rocket rose into the light of the rising sun.
It was the first of two Florida launches that were scheduled to occur just 12-and-a-half hours apart. SpaceX was getting ready for a nighttime Falcon 9 launch from neighboring pad 40 to send a South Korean research spacecraft on a course for the moon.
The 34 rocket launches from Florida’s Space Coast in a single year and the shortest gap between two orbital flights since 1967 will be broken by the two launches, according to Spaceflight Now.
The Atlas 5 flight plan called for three firings of the Centaur second stage’s Aerojet Rocketdyne RL10C-1-1 engine over a three-hour period before releasing SBIRS GEO 6 into a very elliptical orbit. If everything goes according to plan, the satellite will be launched into a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator using its onboard thrusters.
Satellites revolve in lockstep with the earth below at that geosynchronous height, where they take 24 hours to complete an orbit and offer continuous hemisphere vistas.
The SBIRS GEO 6 satellite, developed by Lockheed Martin, is outfitted with sophisticated “staring” and scanning sensors that scan the surface of the earth for the telltale heat signatures of rocket engines in flight.
The two newest components of the constellation, GEO 5, which was launched in May 2021, and GEO 6, have improved on-board propulsion, higher radiation resistance, and improved cyber “hardening.”
The system gives overlapping views that allow computers to swiftly detect, monitor, and estimate where incoming missiles might be headed. It operates round-the-clock alongside other SBIRS and earlier Defense Support Program early warning satellites.
“This is an integrated system of capabilities, end-to-end integrated to deliver … not just the messages and the warning, but also the ability to do something about it,” Denaro said.
“Our entire integrated team across the Department of Defense is focused on getting those messages where they need to go on the timeline that’s necessary to engage the target and respond in a timely manner.”