{"id":27982,"date":"2021-05-13T20:34:53","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T20:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2021\/05\/13\/after-more-than-a-decade-agency-to-retire-experimental-missile-warning-satellites\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:37:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:37:04","slug":"after-more-than-a-decade-agency-to-retire-experimental-missile-warning-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/space\/2021\/05\/13\/after-more-than-a-decade-agency-to-retire-experimental-missile-warning-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"After more than a decade, agency to retire experimental missile warning satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Missile Defense Agency will deorbit two experimental missile warning satellites in the next couple years, the director announced this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially launched in 2009 with an expected lifespan of just two years, the two satellites that make up the Space Tracking and Surveillance System have served as risk reduction experiments for MDA\u2019s missile warning enterprise for more than a decade now. The Northrop Grumman-built satellites were designed to track ballistic missiles from birth-to-death<\/a> with its Raytheon-built infrared sensors from 1,350 kilometers above the Earth\u2019s surface. Sensing data could then be downlinked to the Ballistic Missile Defense System for missile interception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workhorse of the U.S. military\u2019s missile warning satellites is the Space Force\u2019s Space-Based Infrared System, detecting and tracking ballistic missiles all over the globe, 24\/7. The experimental STSS, meanwhile, has advanced the concept of space-based missile warning by demonstrating that it\u2019s possible to intercept a ballistic missile using orbital sensor data. In 2013, STSS fed tracking data to a U.S. Navy cruiser<\/a>, which then launched an interceptor that successfully destroyed a ballistic missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MDA requested $34.1 million to maintain the program in its fiscal 2021 budget request, noting that the satellites continued to provide risk reduction for future missile-tracking and surveillance satellite systems and support integrated BMDS testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, depleted fuel reserves, outdated control systems and the launch of a new, ambitious missile warning satellite constellation on the horizon convinced the agency to sunset the program, MDA Director Vice Adm. Jon Hill said May 11 at the 12th annual McAleese Conference. The director didn\u2019t give a timeline for when exactly it would deorbit the satellites, simply stating that they would come down in the next couple years.<\/p>\n\n\n\t