Lockheed Says Sbirs Still on Track For 2010

This arti­cle first appeared in AviationWeek​.com.

The first Space Based Infrared System (Sbirs) mis­sile warn­ing satel­lite bound for geo­syn­chro­nous (GEO) orbit is on track for deliv­ery to the U.S. Air Force by the fourth quar­ter of cal­en­dar year 2010, accord­ing to its manufacturer.

This will be a major mile­stone for the $10.4 bil­lion Sbirs pro­gram, which has under­gone mul­ti­ple restruc­tur­ings, cost over­runs and delays. Delivery of the first GEO satel­lite is at least 7 years later than planned and cost esti­mates have exceeded pre­dic­tions by billions.

During a speech at this year’s Strategic Space con­fer­ence here hosted by the Space Foundation, the gen­eral over­see­ing Strategic Command said he is wor­ried about poten­tial gaps in cov­er­age for some mis­sion areas in part because satel­lites are being deliv­ered later than planned. U.S. Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton used Sbirs as an exam­ple; all of the pre­ced­ing Defense Support Program (DSP) satel­lites have been launched, and the Sbirs sched­ule has repeat­edly slipped.

Following deliv­ery, the inte­gra­tion of GEO-​​1 onto the rocket will take 45–60 days in prepa­ra­tion for launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., accord­ing to Rick Ambrose, vice pres­i­dent of sur­veil­lance and nav­i­ga­tion sys­tems for Sbirs prime con­trac­tor Lockheed Martin. GEO-​​1 will aug­ment and even­tu­ally relieve satel­lites in the exist­ing DSP constellation.

Thermal vac­uum test­ing is slated for com­ple­tion on GEO-​​1 in the mid­dle of this month, Ambrose adds. The tri­als include three cycles each of hot and cold envi­ron­men­tal test­ing; the satel­lite is on its final round of test­ing in cold tem­per­a­tures at Lockheed Martin’s Sunnyvale, Calif., man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­ity, Ambrose said dur­ing a Nov. 3 inter­view with Aviation Week.

Following this round of tests, about 30 days will be set aside to replace some small parts with issues dis­cov­ered dur­ing the tri­als. One exam­ple is the replace­ment of a part that included tin, which is not suit­able for use on the spacecraft.

In the first quar­ter of cal­en­dar year 2010, the full-​​up space­craft will undergo the Final Integrated System Test (FIST) period, a series of tests on the entire sys­tem in ambi­ent conditions.

Read the rest of this story, see how IEDs are like Ivan’s first space shot, won­der when’s the Brit car­rier com­ing in and see why Boeing might need Joe the Plumber from our friends at Aviation Week, exclu­sively on Military​.com.

– Christian

November 4th, 2009 | Av Week Extra | 48805 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2009/11/04/lockheed-says-sbirs-still-on-track-for-2010/Lockheed+Says+Sbirs+Still+on+Track+For+20102009-11-04+22%3A31%3A28christian You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.