Final DSP For USAF Via Delta IV ELV—SUCCESS!

The U.S. Air Force successfully launched the final Defense Support Program satellite 23 into space atop a giant Delta IV Heavy Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) from Pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base at 8:50 p.m. EDT last evening. This launch marked the first use of the Delta IV HLV for an operational mission on a day honoring our nation’s veterans.




After a four minute ascent, the powerful rocket jettisoned its two strap-on boosters, allowing the rocket’s remaining RS-68 main engine to continue for another minute and twenty seconds before cutting off. Approximately 20 seconds later at an altitude of 85 nautical miles and a velocity of 22,000 feet per second, the second stage RL-10 engine ignited followed by payload fairing jettison at six minutes into flight. The second stage engine completed three separate burns during the six- hour transfer to the target orbit. Spacecraft separation occurred at 3:10 a.m. EDT.




While DSP-23 is the last in an illustrious line of missile warning satellites, DSP satellites will continue to provide many years of national defense support as part of the follow-on Space-Based Infrared System Constellation. DSP will be part of a blended constellation including SBIRS highly elliptical orbit and geosynchronous orbit satellites. The 2nd Space Warning Squadron at Buckley AFB, Colorado, will perform command and control of the blended missile-warning constellation. The launch team itself was comprised of Space and Missile Systems Center’s Space-Based Infrared Systems Wing and Launch and Range Systems Wing, the 45th Space Wing, Northrop Grumman Space Technologies, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, The Aerospace Corporation and the United Launch Alliance, along with secondary mission partners, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory.