Boeing Space Based Space Surveillance Satellite Ready for Launch

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny [NYSE: BA] and its team­mate Ball Aero­space & Tech­nolo­gies Corp. today announced that the Space Based Space Sur­veil­lance (SBSS) satel­lite and ground sys­tem have com­plet­ed final test­ing. The satel­lite is sched­uled to be launched Sept. 25 from Van­den­berg Air Force Base in Lom­poc, Calif.

Once on orbit, SBSS will dra­mat­i­cal­ly improve the accu­ra­cy and time­li­ness of space sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness for the Unit­ed States. The satel­lite will be the U.S. Air Force’s only space-based sen­sor capa­ble of detect­ing and mon­i­tor­ing debris, satel­lites and oth­er space objects with­out lim­i­ta­tions from weath­er, atmos­phere or time of day. 

“Every day, threats to our nation’s valu­able satel­lites and space plat­forms are grow­ing,” said Col. J.R. Jor­dan, SBSS Mis­sion Direc­tor, Space Supe­ri­or­i­ty Sys­tems Wing, U.S. Air Force Space and Mis­sile Sys­tems Cen­ter. “SBSS will rev­o­lu­tion­ize our abil­i­ty to find and mon­i­tor objects that could harm the space assets we depend on for secu­ri­ty, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, weath­er fore­cast­ing and many oth­er essen­tial services.” 

“With its gim­baled cam­era, repro­gram­ma­ble onboard proces­sor and open ground sys­tem archi­tec­ture, SBSS can respond quick­ly to today’s chang­ing mis­sion require­ments and adapt to meet tomorrow’s threats as well,” said Craig Coon­ing, vice pres­i­dent and gen­er­al man­ag­er of Boe­ing Space and Intel­li­gence Sys­tems. “Boe­ing looks for­ward to putting these advanced capa­bil­i­ties into action for the Air Force.” 

The Boe­ing team, includ­ing Ball Aero­space, deliv­ered the ground­break­ing SBSS sys­tem less than three years after the Air Force’s Crit­i­cal Design Review. In May, the satel­lite was shipped from Ball Aerospace’s facil­i­ty in Boul­der, Colo., to Van­den­berg Air Force Base. Since then, the SBSS team has com­plet­ed three full launch count­down rehearsals with the launch team at Van­den­berg Air Force Base and the mis­sion-oper­a­tion team in the SBSS Satel­lite Oper­a­tions Cen­ter at Schriev­er Air Force Base, Colo. The Air Force and the Boe­ing team com­plet­ed the final mis­sion oper­a­tions dress rehearsal in June. 

“Ball is proud to con­tribute to a pro­gram that will improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and over­all flex­i­bil­i­ty for space sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness,” said David L. Tay­lor, pres­i­dent and CEO of Ball Aero­space. “SBSS is a crit­i­cal com­po­nent that will allow the Air Force to keep a sharp­er eye on devel­op­ments that might threat­en U.S. assets in space.” 

“The SBSS team is ready to go on Sept. 25,” said Todd Cit­ron, direc­tor, Boe­ing Advanced Space and Intel­li­gence Sys­tems. “We’ve thor­ough­ly rehearsed all plans and pro­ce­dures, the Satel­lite Oper­a­tions Cen­ter has been con­fig­ured for flight oper­a­tions, and the SBSS satel­lite and Mino­taur launch vehi­cle are com­plet­ing final prepa­ra­tions. We’re look­ing for­ward to putting this space­craft into orbit so that it can per­form its vital mission.” 

Boe­ing is respon­si­ble for over­all pro­gram man­age­ment; sys­tems engi­neer­ing and inte­gra­tion; design and devel­op­ment of the Satel­lite Oper­a­tions Cen­ter; and sys­tem oper­a­tions and main­te­nance. Ball Aero­space devel­oped, designed, man­u­fac­tured, inte­grat­ed and test­ed the satel­lite, using the Boe­ing-built onboard mis­sion data processor. 

Ball Aero­space & Tech­nolo­gies Corp. sup­ports crit­i­cal mis­sions of impor­tant nation­al agen­cies such as the Depart­ment of Defense, NASA, NOAA and oth­er U.S. gov­ern­ment and com­mer­cial enti­ties. The com­pa­ny devel­ops and man­u­fac­tures space­craft, advanced instru­ments and sen­sors, com­po­nents, data exploita­tion sys­tems and RF solu­tions for strate­gic, tac­ti­cal and sci­en­tif­ic applications. 

A unit of The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is one of the world’s largest defense, space and secu­ri­ty busi­ness­es spe­cial­iz­ing in inno­v­a­tive and capa­bil­i­ties-dri­ven cus­tomer solu­tions, and the world’s largest and most ver­sa­tile man­u­fac­tur­er of mil­i­tary air­craft. Head­quar­tered in St. Louis, Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty is a $34 bil­lion busi­ness with 68,000 employ­ees worldwide. 

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Contact: 

Diana Ball
Boe­ing Space & Intel­li­gence Sys­tems
Office: 562–797-4303
Mobile: 714–319-1014
diana.ball@boeing.com

Ang­ie Yoshimu­ra
Boe­ing Space & Intel­li­gence Sys­tems
Office: 310–364-6708
Mobile: 310–227-6568
angie.e.yoshimura@boeing.com

Roz Brown
Ball Aero­space & Tech­nolo­gies Corp.
303–533-6059
rbrown@ball.com

Source:
Boeing 

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