Author Topic: ULA DIVM+(4,2) AFSPC-04 (GSSAP-1 & 2) SLC-37 July 28, 2014 (Read 176516 times)

Jim · « **on:** 09/19/2013 05:52 pm »

Live thread for updates.

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Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #1 on:** 09/19/2013 06:03 pm »

For those who don't know, it is an unknown satellite planned to launch next February on a Delta IV M+(4,2) from the Cape.

Super-secret Milcom (maybe inclined GSO?)? Or an optical bird placed in GSO for 24 hours wide-angle surveillance of somewhere over the world?

Jim · « **Reply #2 on:** 09/19/2013 06:08 pm »

It is a spacecraft and don't know what this has to do with new EELV entrants.

Jim · « **Reply #3 on:** 09/19/2013 07:09 pm »

Quote from: Rocket Guy on 09/19/2013 07:07 pm

It's going to be like STP-1, with several payloads/cubesats. The ANGELS payload, Autonomous Nanosatellite Guardian for Evaluating Local Space, by Orbital Sciences is the main one. There is some info about it on their website somewhere.

http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/release.asp?prid=635

The Delta IV will use the ESPA for the first time.

No, it isn't like STP-1. Those are just secondaries, like on many missions.

Jim · « **Reply #4 on:** 09/19/2013 07:33 pm »

Quote from: Rocket Guy on 09/19/2013 07:12 pm

I have seen ULA presentations online (public) that show the mission being similar to STP-1 in nature and discussing it as a rideshare mission.

It has available performance for rideshare but that has nothing to do with the primary payload mission.

Targeteer · « **Reply #5 on:** 09/19/2013 09:00 pm »

Another PAN? There still is no good assessment what PAN is or what it is doing (besides moving a lot in orbit) and maybe the AFSPC designation is an attempt to further muddle it's mission and affiliations. The Delta IV M+(4,2) has excess capacity (5,845 to GTO) compared to the Atlas 401 (4,750 kg) used to launch PAN allowing the secondary payloads.

arachnitect · « **Reply #6 on:** 09/19/2013 11:51 pm »

Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 09/19/2013 06:03 pm

For those who don't know, it is an unknown satellite planned to launch next February on a Delta IV M+(4,2) from the Cape.

Super-secret Milcom (maybe inclined GSO?)? Or an optical bird placed in GSO for 24 hours wide-angle surveillance of somewhere over the world?

What optical surveillance could you do from GSO? Especially with a relatively small satellite that fits in a 4m. fairing?

Wouldn't that be an NRO program anyway?

edkyle99 · « **Reply #7 on:** 09/20/2013 02:10 am »

Quote from: arachnitect on 09/19/2013 11:51 pm

What optical surveillance could you do from GSO?

Of other satellites?

- Ed Kyle

kevin-rf · « **Reply #8 on:** 09/20/2013 11:53 am »

If you are inspecting stuff in GEO, wouldn't you be more interested in sniffing the radio com they do? Optical imaging only buys you so much, antenna sizes, solar panel sizes, but SIGINT gets to the heart of what most satellites in GEO do.

Targeteer · « **Reply #9 on:** 09/20/2013 03:57 pm »

Quote from: Targeteer on 09/19/2013 09:00 pm

Another PAN? There still is no good assessment what PAN is or what it is doing (besides moving a lot in orbit) and maybe the AFSPC designation is an attempt to further muddle it's mission and affiliations. The Delta IV M+(4,2) has excess capacity (5,845 to GTO) compared to the Atlas 401 (4,750 kg) used to launch PAN allowing the secondary payloads.

My other guess is a second Prowler payload (discussed here http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2011/07/prowler.html). If the cumulative analysis is correct, then a replacement may be due. AFSPC has the mission of tracking and surveillance of foreign satellites (http://www.afspc.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=3649&page=1) so this mission would seem to fit the AFSPC launch tag.

Jim · « **Reply #10 on:** 09/20/2013 04:11 pm »

Quote from: Targeteer on 09/20/2013 03:57 pm

My other guess is a second Prowler payload (discussed here http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2011/07/prowler.html). If the cumulative analysis is correct, then a replacement may be due. AFSPC has the mission of tracking and surveillance of foreign satellites (http://www.afspc.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=3649&page=1) so this mission would seem to fit the AFSPC launch tag.

If is would be a Prowler then it wouldn't be AFSPC. AFSPC had the same role back when Prowler was supposedly launched and Prowler was supposedly an NRO program.

simonbp · « **Reply #11 on:** 09/20/2013 05:04 pm »

If I'm understanding that article right, Prowler was launched back in 1990? So anything launching now is likely an unrelated development, though it could have a similar mission of satellite inspection and tracking.

edkyle99 · « **Reply #12 on:** 09/20/2013 08:15 pm »

Quote from: Jim on 09/19/2013 05:52 pm

What is it?
Discuss.

Last year, Ted Molczan guessed that it was Trumpet-FO 3 + SBIRS-HEO 3 going to a Molniya orbit from the Cape. I wonder if he has updated that guess.
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Apr-2012/0199.html

- Ed Kyle

Jim · « **Reply #13 on:** 09/20/2013 08:19 pm »

Quote from: edkyle99 on 09/20/2013 08:15 pm

Quote from: Jim on 09/19/2013 05:52 pm
What is it?
Discuss.
Last year, Ted Molczan guessed that it was Trumpet-FO 3 + SBIRS-HEO 3 going to a Molniya orbit from the Cape. I wonder if he has updated that guess.
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Apr-2012/0199.html

- Ed Kyle

His logic is wrong. There is no need for the USAF to cover for the NRO

pathfinder_01 · « **Reply #14 on:** 09/20/2013 09:39 pm »

All I can guess is some change in contracting methods for ULA or a change in the launcher(I suspect the former over the latter).

arachnitect · « **Reply #15 on:** 09/21/2013 08:07 pm »

My guess: It's a comsat that provides bandwidth for drones or Spec ops. There's not much special about the satellite, but talking about it would reveal too much about the primary users.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #16 on:** 12/05/2013 02:47 pm »

Per L2, the next launch from SLC-37 will be the Delta IV with AFSPC-04.

"Launch scheduled > 02/27/14; launch window: 0300E-0700E (Range approved)"

There's also a Jim thread about the satellite here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32893.0

Keeping two threads to allow for this to be updates.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #17 on:** 12/05/2013 09:07 pm »

Updating via L2. This is going to be late April now. Not yet official.

Galactic Penguin SST · « **Reply #18 on:** 01/24/2014 02:45 pm »

Bumping this thread since I found that there's an AFSPC-5 in work for launch late this year or early next year (no idea about the LV - though someone here seems to have said Atlas V) - and it is carrying cubesats under NASA's ELaNa program (this will be ELaNa-11).

Interestingly there's this statement from this NRO presentation about the cubesat ride-share program:

Quote

Near term:
• L-39 launch in December 2013
• L-55 launch late 2014
• NRO teamed with Air Force for AFSPC-5 launch late 2014

So that thingy must be something jointly operated under the umbrellas of NRO and USAF. What could they be?

William Graham · « **Reply #19 on:** 01/24/2014 08:11 pm »

Quote from: Galactic Penguin SST on 01/24/2014 02:45 pm

Bumping this thread since I found that there's an AFSPC-5 in work for launch late this year or early next year (no idea about the LV - though someone here seems to have said Atlas V) - and it is carrying cubesats under NASA's ELaNa program (this will be ELaNa-11).

Interestingly there's this statement from this NRO presentation about the cubesat ride-share program:

Quote
Near term:
• L-39 launch in December 2013
• L-55 launch late 2014
• NRO teamed with Air Force for AFSPC-5 launch late 2014

So that thingy must be something jointly operated under the umbrellas of NRO and USAF. What could they be?

An alternative interpretation would be that the NRO's involvement is related to the CubeSats, rather than the primary payload. Both NPSCuL launches to date have carried NRO-sponsored satellites under the Colony programme.