WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Space Force on Tuesday morning launched an experimental weather satellite, part of a push to improve its on-orbit weather forecasting capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The satellite flew on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the company\u2019s Transporter-6 mission, which carried 114 payloads to orbit from government and commercial customers. Built by Louisville, Colo.-based Orion Space Solutions, the satellite will support the Space Force\u2019s Electro-Optical\/Infrared Weather Systems program, demonstrating emerging space weather imaging technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The EWS spacecraft\u2019s sensor is designed to provide military users with better weather forecasting and monitoring capabilities. Data collected from the demonstration will inform the service\u2019s future electro-optical infrared weather constellation, set to replace its legacy constellation, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf successful, this will provide an innovative option to deliver space-based environmental monitoring data to the warfighter at an operationally relevant speed,\u201d Lt. Col. Joe Maguadog, EWS materiel leader and program manager, said in a Jan. 3 press release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The demonstration is scheduled to last at least a year, and the service expects to begin collecting data from the spacecraft early this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with Orion\u2019s demonstration satellite, General Atomics is designing a second EWS sensor prototype, which is scheduled to be delivered by 2025. The spacecraft will have a three-year mission life and will not only demonstrate space-based weather imaging technology but will provide an initial replacement for DMSP\u2019s weather imaging and cloud characterization capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The service expects its three remaining DMSP satellites will run out of fuel by 2026. EWS satellites will fill a portion of that impending capability gap along with the Weather System Follow-on Microwave program, which is slated to <\/b>launch the first Ball Aerospace-built satellite later this year. The service is also exploring options to buy weather data directly from commercial companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Space Force requested $96.5 million in fiscal 2023 for EWS to fund the first demonstration and start early test and integration work for the second satellite. Lawmakers cut $10 million from the program in the final version of the Fiscal 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law Dec. 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Data collected from the demonstration will inform the Space Force’s future weather monitoring constellation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":37,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"10":{"categories":["space","home","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"space"}}},"categories":[7,29,32,37],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3260],"class_list":["post-32889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battlefield-tech","category-home","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3QN33GAZPBAW7OTUPQ6XA7UUFM","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2023\/01\/03\/space-force-launches-experimental-weather-satellite\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n