Brenda Marie Rivers
The U.S. Space Force and United Launch Alliance have integrated the latest Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite onto the latter’s Atlas V rocket ahead of its launch on March 21, Spaceflight Now reported Thursday.
The Lockheed Martin-built AEHF-6 satellite arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Wednesday and is slated to join its predecessors built to handle jam-resistant military communications. AEHF-5 lifted off from Cape Canaveral in August.
Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA and former Wash100 Award recipient, confirmed AEHF-6’s assembly onto Atlas V on Twitter, according to the report.
His comments come after ULA delayed the satellite’s launch for two days due to a discrepancy in valve readings.
Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center said that Atlas V will also launch a secondary payload called TDO 2, which has a cube satellite-based framework and is intended to support optical calibration and space domain awareness efforts.
