SMC goes "2-for-2" on weather delayed launch

by James Spellman, Jr.
Space and Missile Systems Center Public Affairs

7/23/2015 - LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, El Segundo, Calif. -- Five o'clock in the "City of Angels" typically signals the end of a hard work day. It's a time when most Los Angeles metropolitan area commuters pile on to the freeways and Metrorail system, returning to their homes during the long summer evening.

However, about 25 dedicated Space and Missile Systems Center personnel put off their mad dash to jam the streets of L.A. and gathered instead in the Gordon Conference Center at the Schriever Space Complex. Instead of having visions of the weekend ahead, these active duty and civilian employees -- some with family members in tow -- observed the culmination of their efforts some three hours ahead and 2,584 miles away at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Featuring a newly uprated Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68A main engine for the first time on a rocket of its kind, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Medium+ (5, 4) vehicle with a five-meter wide, 47-foot long payload fairing and four solid fuel motors soared from Space Launch Complex 37B at 8:07 p.m. EDT Thursday evening, carrying the seventh Wideband Global SATCOM satellite into a super-synchronous 36,000 mile transfer orbit. The Air Force communications satellite will join a constellation of WGS satellites already on station, providing global coverage to the U.S. military and its allies.

Meanwhile, back in California, the appreciative audience watched the launch as part of the eighth "SMC Launch Presents" event since 2014.

Hosted by Capt. Nick Laliberte, Government Mission Integration manager from SMC's Launch Systems Directorate, these "Launch and Learn" sessions offer a pre-launch mission briefing and question and answer period to explain what occurs during the countdown and the mission timeline in between the launch and satellite separation.

Just one week earlier, a similar, albeit larger audience of more than 150 SMC personnel gathered the morning of July 15 to watch the successful flight of a ULA Atlas V "401" launch vehicle carry the GPS IIF-10 satellite into orbit for the Global Positioning System navigation network. The fourth Atlas V launch of 2015 with helped mark the 20th anniversary of the GPS constellation of satellites achieving Full Operational Capability.

Launch managers were forced to scrub the WGS-7 mission Wednesday evening for 24 hours, due to Florida's notorious summer weather. The stormy forecast proved too worrisome to roll back the protective mobile service gantry and leave the vehicle exposed during the afternoon fueling session.

Weather forecasters from the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base expected heavy thunderstorms in the Cape area for Thursday's attempt, with anvil clouds and lightning being their primary concerns of violating launch criteria. Fortunately, the skies parted long enough for ULA's medium lift launch vehicle to do its job.

"This is the seventh installment of the WGS system. The satellites are an important element of a new, high-capacity comm system providing communications capability to our troops in the field," said Ron Fortson, United Launch Alliance's director of mission management.

"It provides the highest data-rate communications for the government," added Rico Attanasio, Boeing director of Military Satellite Communications.

Boeing is the builder of the WGS fleet and ULA has launched all of the spacecraft to date. The satellites supply communications such as maps and data to soldiers on the battlefield, relay video from unmanned aerial reconnaissance drones, route voice calls and data messaging, and even offer quality-of-life considerations like television broadcasts and email delivery to the troops.

"The WGS constellation continues to provide significant added capacity to our DoD space communications architecture." said Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, Space and Missile Systems Center commander and Air Force Program Executive Officer for Space.  "WGS delivers crucial wideband communication to soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and international partners around the globe. I am proud of the hard work and cooperation of the government and contactor teams on another successful WGS launch."

With three more satellites in production, the WGS constellation is planned to have a total of ten satellites on orbit by 2018.

Air Force Space Command's Space and Missile Systems Center, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Calif., is the U.S. Air Force's center of acquisition excellence for acquiring and developing military space systems. Its portfolio includes the Global Positioning System, military satellite communications, defense meteorological satellites, space launch and range systems, satellite control networks, space based infrared systems and space situational awareness capabilities.