Billion-Dollar Satellite Launched: Space Force Initiative to Scan for Missile Takeoffs

Recent reports said a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket took off earlier today from Cape Canaveral, boosting the billion-dollar missile early warning satellite into orbit to scan this planet below for the tell-tale heat produced by a threatening rocket launch.

A CBS News report specified that once operational, following tests and checkouts, this new satellite will join for other SBIRS or Space-Based Infrared System spacecraft already in orbit about 22,300 miles above the equator using state-of-the-art infrared sensors and telescopes to provide early signs of unusual heat signatures.

According to vice president of satellite-builder Tom McCormick at Lockheed Martin's Overhead Persistent Infrared Missions division, the need for SBIRS systems has never been more serious.

He added that ballistic missile technology's threat is spreading globally, opponents or challengers who were once held at the length of the geographic arm are now touting their development of technology.

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Early Missile Warning

McCormick also said, for early missile warning, infrared detection capabilities of SBIRS systems serve as a "tip of the spear, or bell ringer," that a launch has taken place, not to mention, something is approaching.

A similar Spaceflight Insider report said, SBIR data informs many of the other defensive systems of the country, which together are forming a protective missile kill chain to protect the nation and the armed forces.

Running one day delayed due to trouble with a launchpad system, the SBIRS GEO-5 mission got on the move at 1:37 pm EDT, when the Russian-built RD-180 main engine of the Atlas 5 ignited, followed by a pair of strap-on solid-fuel boosters.

News reports said, tipping the scales at a 950,000-pound weight at liftoff, this 197-foot-tall rocket majestically climbed away from pad 41 atop a trail of brilliant exhaust at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, tipping over and arcing eastward through a cloudless blue sky over the Atlantic Ocean.

This occurrence was the second takeoff from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, as described in Space.com under Space Launch Delta 45's auspices, previously the 45^th Space Wing, as the transition to Space Force from Air Force continues.

SBIRS GEO-5

Approximately 43 minutes from takeoff, after the Aerojet Rocketdyne engine's two firings powering at the Centaur second stage of the Atlas 5, the SBIRS GEO-5 satellite was launched to fly on its own in an originally elliptical with a high point of roughly 21,800 miles and low point of 565 miles.

On-board thrusters, over several weeks, will be utilized for the circularization of the orbit at a 22,300-mile altitude above the equator, placing the satellite in a "geosynchronous" orbit where it takes 24 hours for spacecraft to complete a single trip around the planet and therefore, stay in place over the same site.

Furthermore, the SBIRS GEO-5 satellite, a pioneering military spacecraft, developed around the modernized LM 2100 chassis of Lockheed Martin.

The LM 2100 chassis is an in-house undertaking developed to provide greater resiliency and cyber strengthening, boosted spacecraft power, electronics, and propulsion, explained McCormick.

Essentially, the SBIR system incorporates data from older Defense Support Program, early-warning satellites along the so-called "stand-alone infrared sensors" installed on other categorized military satellites in lower elliptical orbits.

A similar report is shown on Space Videos' YouTube video below: