Mary-Louise Hoffman
Boeing received initial on-orbit signals from its Wideband Global SATCOM 7 satellite following the spacecraft’s Wednesday launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The company said Thursday it built WGS-7 to deliver 17 percent more communications bandwidth capacity to the U.S. military and allied forces.
Dan Hart, vice president of Boeing’s government space systems unit, said the company expects the WGS-7 to WGS-10 satellite programs to save the U.S. Air Force more than $150 million.
Boeing will build the next three tactical communication satellites with a digital payload technology designed to boost user connectivity.
The Air Force is scheduled to launch WGS-8 in late 2016.
