SBIRS Launch Scrubbed

An Air Force spokesman just tweeted that today's scheduled launch of the first Space-Based Infrared System geosynchronous orbit satellite has been scrubbed.

The satellite was to have launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL, using a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle sometime today between 2:14 to 2:54 p.m., according to a ULA statement. The ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

GEO-1 will be the first in the constellation to provide scanning and staring infrared sensor data while flying over the equator, according to a Lockheed Martin statement. The satellite system will support critical national security missions that include missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness.

Inside Missile Defense reported this week that the Air Force plans to put about $555 million toward purchasing two SBIRS satellites in fiscal year 2013.

Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter recently said the Defense Department needs to make changes concerning its space programs because they are too expensive:

"On space programs, we're paying too much," Carter said April 20 at the Heritage Foundation. "You'll see us doing a lot with the management of space programs coming up because there's way too much cost structure built into our space programs."

Carter said that these changes can be found with the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites, where DOD is looking "very aggressively" at the cost structure and considering the possibility of block buys. DOD is also looking at the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program.

As Inside the Air Force reported last month:

The success of the GEO-1 launch is critical because it is a follow-on program to the Defense Support Program (DSP), which is projected to have difficulties in the near future, said Gen. William Shelton, the commander of Air Force Space Command.

The new system will replace DSP, which has provided early warning for intercontinental ballistic missile launches since 1960.

Shelton said the Air Force has statistical projections for gaps in DSP service in the near future but would not discuss them. SBIRS is an expensive satellite system that has experienced several delays but it is important for officials to properly execute the program in May, he said during a Feb. 17 media roundtable at an Air Force Association conference in Orlando, FL.

GEO-1 will be the first in the constellation to provide scanning and staring infrared sensor data while flying over the equator, according to a Lockheed Martin statement. The satellite system will support critical national security missions that include missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness.