Article Posted on : - Dec 14, 2010

SBIRS GEO-1. A Lockheed Martin photo

SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA (BNS): The US Air Force and Lockheed Martin-led Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) team has successfully completed the Final Integrated System Test (FIST) of the first geosynchronous (GEO-1) satellite.

Having conducted all system environmental testing and now with the completion of FIST, SBIRS GEO-1 is on track to meet its scheduled spring 2011 launch aboard an Atlas V launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, according to Lockheed Martin.

The SBIRS Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) payloads have already been launched and are meeting or exceeding all performance requirements, it said.

On the path to spacecraft delivery, the SBIRS team will complete final space to ground interface system testing, perform final spacecraft component installations, and conduct a final factory confidence test.

Qualification of the satellite's flight software, designed to provide highly reliable command and control operations, is also progressing steadily.

The team recently completed all 138 Engineering Dry Runs (EDR), a key milestone in the flight software qualification regimen, and is on track to complete the spacecraft’s comprehensive flight software qualification testing program early next year.

The SBIRS team is led by the Infrared Space Systems Directorate at the US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.

Lockheed Martin is the SBIRS prime contractor, with Northrop Grumman, as the payload integrator. Air Force Space Command operates the SBIRS system.