Jane Edwards
The U.S. Navy’s ground control facility established communications with a Lockheed Martin-built Mobile User Objective System satellite after the satellite launched Friday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
MUOS-5 took off onboard a United Launch Alliance-built Atlas V rocket as the fifth and final satellite to complete the service branch’s network constellation, Lockheed said Friday.
“Now that the Navy’s constellation is complete, we will continue to work with our government and industry teammates to further refine MUOS based on user feedback,†said Mark Woempner, director of narrowband communications mission area at Lockheed.
The company expects the fifth MUOS satellite to arrive at its geosynchronous orbit destination at approximately 22,000 miles above the Earth in the next few days in order to initiate the on-orbit testing phase.
“With this fifth satellite, MUOS completes the current constellation bringing additional ultra-high frequency capacity, as well as providing the assurance of an on-orbit spare for the new Wideband Code Division Multiple Access capability,” Capt. Joe Kan, program manager at the Navy’s communications satellite program office, said Wednesday.
The service branch added the MUOS satellite constellation is designed to provide military mobile forces access to the Defense Information Systems Network in order to facilitate voice and data transmission.
