Jane Edwards
The U.S. Navy received initial signals from its new Lockheed Martin-built Mobile User Objective System satellite three hours after it launched Wednesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the Navy reported.
MUOS-4 was scheduled to launch Monday but was postponed due to a tropical storm.
Lockheed said MUOS-4 lifted off onboard a United Launch Alliance-made Atlas V rocket to join the other three satellites as part of the Navy’s communications satellite constellation.
The constellation works to provide video, data and voice capabilities for mobile military personnel via an Internet protocol-based platform.
“We look forward to completing our on-orbit health checks and delivering this important asset to the U.S. Navy and these new capabilities to our mobile forces,†said Iris Bombelyn, vice president of narrowband communications at Lockheed.
The Navy expects the fourth satellite to arrive at its geosynchronous orbit destination in the next few days in order to initiate the on-orbit testing phase.
