Secret Satellite Set for Launch in Summer

Friday, June 05, 2009

Ordinarily the U.S. government doesn’t give out a lot of information about spy satellites its puts into space, but it does at least reveal which agency or branch of the military is behind a scheduled launch. But so far military officials are being especially secretive about a new defense satellite that is supposed to go up sometime this summer, according to a story by Spaceflight Now. Unlike previous launches, this one has no date and no “mission ownership.” All that is known is the mission price tag ($500 million) and its code name “PAN,” which most likely is meaningless, according to the story. The rocket’s payload may belong to United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, based on previous launch schedule information that was made public.

 
Cape Canaveral, where the secretive launch is scheduled to take place, has been increasingly used this year by the military for spy satellite missions. Three military flights already have lifted off in 2009 from the Florida site, with as many as five more planned in the second half of the year. The military has revealed the payloads of the upcoming launches, which consist of two Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellites for the Missile Defense Agency, a GPS 2R-21 satellite, a Wideband Global SATCOM satellite, and a new GPS 2F satellite for the U.S. Air Force.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Secret PAN Satellite Leads Cape Milspace Launch Surge (by Craig Covault, Spaceflight Now)

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