Ramona Adams
United Launch Alliance aims to launch a missile warning satellite for the U.S. Air Force in Cape Canaveral, Florida with the company’s Atlas V rocket on Jan. 19, 2017.
ULA said the Lockheed Martin-built Space-Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit Flight 3 satellite will work to provide global infrared surveillance support to missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness efforts.
Lockheed delivered SBIRS GEO-3 to Cape Canaveral in August in preparation for the launch that was originally scheduled in early October.
The deployment of SBIRS GEO-3 will mark ULA’s first launch mission in 2017 and serve as the 69th Atlas V mission overall.
SBIRS is comprised of satellites and hosted payloads in the geosynchronous Earth orbit and highly elliptical orbit as well as ground hardware and software.
