SMC Is Spot On To Prevent Satellite Systems Off

An impressive effort, to say the least, as an awesome team celebrates their success. Engineers from the Air Force‘s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), Air Force Research Laboratory, the Aerospace Corporation, Orbital Sciences, and General Dynamics, successfully launched the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System satellite. The craft was affixed to an Orbital Sciences Pegasus Air Launch System at 10:02 a.m. PDT, April 16th. Then, nine minutes later, the first spacecraft signal acquisition occurred at 10:11 a.m. PDT. The mission of C/NOFS is to forecast scintillation-caused communication outages from satellites to ground assets. This forecast will give the warfighter a full understanding of their satellite communications environment allowing them to plan operations accordingly.

The event ran as follows: The Lockheed L-1011 took off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Ralik Islands, and after reaching its optimal launch altitude, dropped the Pegasus Air Launch System from the underside of the aircraft. After that, the launch system began its historical climb towards space. The team that worked collaboratively to achieve this goal was the DoD Space Test Program, SMC, the Center’s Space Development and Test Wing and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Project participants include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Naval Research Laboratory, the University of Texas, the engineering firm Jackson and Tull, and the National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System Joint Program Office. Col. Stephen Hargis, Director of the DoD Space Test Program and Space Development Group commander said, “I am just overwhelmed and ecstatic by the results of this morning’s launch. I believe C/NOFS will have a huge impact on the battlefield and help bring more of our troops home alive.”—Los Angeles Air Force Base, El Segundo, California.