The
third Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite built by Lockheed
Martin for the U.S. Navy is now responding to commands after being launched
yesterday. An initialization team, led by the company, is operating
the MUOS-3 satellite from the Naval Satellite Operations Center located
at the Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California. |
The MUOS
satellite constellation operates like a smart phone network in the sky,
vastly improving current secure mobile satellite communications for
warfighters on the move. Unlike previous systems, MUOS provides users
an on-demand, beyond-line-of-sight capability to transmit and receive
high-quality, prioritized voice and mission data, on a high-speed Internet
Protocol-based system.
“Thanks to the Atlas team for the safe delivery of MUOS-3 into
our Geosynchronous Transfer orbit,” said Iris Bombelyn, vice president
of Narrowband Communications at Lockheed Martin. “We look forward
to completing our on-orbit health checks and delivering this important
asset to the U.S. Navy. The addition of this satellite will give the
MUOS constellation coverage over more than three-quarters of the globe,
further extending the reach of the advanced communications capabilities
MUOS will provide our mobile warfighters.”
MUOS-3 launched at 8:04 p.m. EST aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas
V rocket and will transition over the next nine days to reach its geosynchronous
orbit location 22,000 miles above the Earth. The solar arrays and antennas
will then be deployed, and on-orbit testing will start for subsequent
turn-over to the Navy for test and commissioning to service. |
Earlier
today, before the MUOS launch, Lockheed Martin employees visited six
classrooms totaling about 280 seventh and eighth-graders at nearby Ronald
McNair Magnet Middle School in Rockledge, Florida, to demonstrate important
principles of space engineering through a hands-on activity and to encourage
science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Six members
of the school’s science department and faculty later attended
the launch viewing.
MUOS is the Navy’s next generation secure mobile satellite communications
system which will eventually replace the legacy Ultra High Frequency
(UHF) Follow-On system. MUOS satellites have two payloads to ensure
access to UHF narrowband communications as well as new capabilities.
MUOS’ advanced Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)
payload incorporates commercial technology and a new waveform to provide
users priority-based capacity.
Once fully operational, MUOS will provide 16 times the capacity of the
legacy system. More than 50,000 terminals that are in the field today
can be retro-fitted with WCDMA.
Prior to its launch, the MUOS-3 satellite was built at Lockheed Martin’s
Sunnyvale, California, manufacturing facility. The satellite was shipped
to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Nov. 5, and encapsulated into
its launch fairing on Dec. 18.
The MUOS constellation is expected to provide warfighters full global
coverage before the end of 2015. MUOS-1 and MUOS-2, launched respectively
in 2012 and 2013, are already operational and providing high-quality
voice communications. MUOS-4 is on track to launch later this year.
The fourth and final required MUOS ground station also is expected to
be delivered to the Navy early this year. |
