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L5 Demo Satellite Scheduled for Launch in June
http://sidt.gpsworld.com/gpssidt/content/printContentPopup.jsp?id=488026
Jan 30, 2008
GPS World
The U.S. Air Force has scheduled the launch of the modernized GPS
Block IIR satellite that will host an L5 demonstration payload for
June 30 of this year.
According to a recent presentation by Col. Mark Crews, chief engineer
at the Air Force's GPS Wing, Los Angeles Air Force Base, satellite
Block IIR-20(M), dubbed SVN48, will be headed for orbital slot B2. It
is the second GPS satellite launch scheduled for the year; IIR-19(M),
or SVN49, has been scheduled for launch on March 13 and an orbital
slot of A4. The last modernized Bock IIR satellite, IIR-21 (SVN50),
is slated to head into orbit on September 11, 2008, into slot C2.
IIR-20(M) will temporarily broadcast a third civilian signal,
broadcast on the L5 frequency. Part of the modernization program for
GPS, the next round of satellites -- Block IIF and Block III
-- will incorporate the L5 signal, which will be reserved for
aviation and safety-of-life applications.
Payload builder ITT Corp. delivered the L5 demonstration payload to
partner and GPS satellite builder Lockheed Martin for integration on
the spacecraft and final system-level testing in December of last
year.
Incidentally, IIR-21/SVN50, the third GPS satellite scheduled for
launch this year, is actually on its second try. Sometimes referred
to with tongue in cheek as "wetsat," SVN50 was actually one of the
first Block IIR satellites, Block IIR-3, scheduled for launch in the
spring of 1999. While on the launch pad in May of that year, Cape
Canaveral experienced unusually heavy thunderstorms; the IIR-3
satellite's rain shield failed after a large amount of water seeped
through leaks in the white room, where the satellite was stored on
the launch pad.
