Atlas V rocket to launch missile warning satellite tonight

UPDATE: Thursday's launch has been scrubbed to Friday (Jan. 20) at 7:42 p.m. Tune in to floridatoday.com beginning at 6:30 for launch coverage.

Since the 1960s, U.S. satellites have sought to detect and provide early warnings of ballistic missiles launches.

A $1.2 billion mission scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral at 7:46 p.m. Thursday on an Atlas V rocket aims to add the latest spacecraft to that effort, which tracks a growing number of missiles scattered over a much wider area than the original Cold War threat.

“In today’s world, and certainly over the last 20 years, the proliferation of missiles outside that concentrated area has grown demonstrably,” said Col. Dennis Bythewood, director of the Air Force’s Remote Sensing Systems Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base. “Regional systems present in Asia and the Middle East are well within the range of our deployed forces, as we’ve seen over the last years of combat operations.”

The number of ballistic missiles increased by more than 1,200 over the past five years, according to the Missile Defense Agency, and more than 5,900 are based outside the United States, North Atlantic Treaty Organization member nations, Russia and China.

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United Launch Alliance’s 194-foot Atlas V rocket rolled to its Launch Complex 41 pad Wednesday morning with the third satellite in the Air Force’s Space Based Infrared System, or SBIRS.

The system is modernizing and replacing the legacy Defense Support Program, which began launching in 1970.

The new satellites, built by Lockheed Martin, carry more powerful infrared sensors that scan the ground twice as fast, enabling them to spot dimmer targets and missiles with shorter engine burns.

“With amazing precision, timing and accuracy, we can detect, track and process infrared information, and then transmit it via secure communications links to decision makers and military leaders around the globe,” said Dave Sheridan, SBIRS program director at Lockheed Martin.

Combined with sensors on satellites in different orbits and software on the ground, the system identifies where a missile has launched from and predicts where it will impact.

“The capability of the satellites that we’re launching now basically cuts in half the amount of time it takes for the satellite to find and fix a missile launch on the face of the Earth, and then feed that into our missile warning network,” said Bythewood.

Exactly how long that takes is classified.

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Thursday’s launch was delayed from October after a Lockheed Martin supplier reported a problem on another satellite equipped with a similar main engine. The engine is key to the satellite reaching the right orbit after being dropped off by the rocket.

An investigation cleared the propulsion system on the new satellite known as SBIRS GEO Flight 3, referencing the program’s third satellite bound for a geosynchronous orbit, where satellites match the speed of Earth’s rotation and appear to hold a fixed position in the sky.

“We feel very comfortable that we’ve got a good engine on GEO Flight 3 and that it’s ready to fly,” said Bythewood.

The mission’s $1.2 billion cost includes the launch and at least 12 years of operations in orbit. A fourth SBIRS satellite is expected to launch in November on another Atlas V to complete a global constellation. The system's first two satellites launched in 2011 and 2013.

Thursday’s mission will be the 69th by an Atlas V. It’s the first of at least seven Cape missions planned this year for United Launch Alliance, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture formed just over a decade ago.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.

Launch Friday

Mission: Air Force's third Space Based Infrared System missile warning satellite (SBIRS GEO Flight 3)

Rocket: United Launch Alliance Atlas V (401 configuration)

Launch time: 7:42 p.m. EST

Launch window: 40 minutes, to 8:22 p.m. EST

Launch complex: 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Weather: 70 percent “go”

Join floridatoday.com at 6:30 p.m. for countdown chat and updates, including streaming of ULA’s launch webcast starting at 7:26 p.m.