Air Force Eyes Lockheed, Aerospace Corp Partnerships for GPS Satellite Station-Keeping Maneuvers

The U.S. Air Force’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron plans to work with Aerospace Corp. and Lockheed Martin for satellite maneuver operations after performing its first orbital station-keeping of a GPS III satellite last month.

Schriever Air Force Base said Friday the squadron conducted the maneuver from Colorado to keep Satellite Vehicle Number 75 in its orbital node within the GPS constellation.

The maneuver involved altering SVN-75’s speed and orbit to move it to an ideal position to handle precision, navigation and timing signals around the world.

2nd Lt. Tyler Gorman, navigation payload engineer at 2nd SOPS, said the squadron intends to deploy the satellite maneuvering procedure for regular satellite maintenance operations moving forward.

“GPS maintenance requires a coordinated effort to ensure our worldwide service is preserved,” he said. “That means careful planning and execution from our analysts in 2 SOPS, our satellite system operator and the operational support from [Lockheed] and [Aerospace Corp.]”

The squadron is slated to perform another station maneuver for SVN-76 in the coming months.