Boeing gets signals from new military sat

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Boeing said Thursday it was already receiving signals from its new WGS satellite for the U.S. Air Force.

The company said Thursday it had "acquired signals from the first Wide-band Global SATCOM -- WGS -- satellite. The WGS is a new military spacecraft "that will help meet the growing demand for military satellite communications by providing a ten-fold increase in telecommunications capacity," Boeing said.

"The satellite -- the first of five that Boeing is building for the U.S. Air Force -- was successfully launched at 8:22 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 10 by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Fla. ... A ground station in Dongara, Australia, received the satellite's first signals ... at 9:09 p.m. Eastern. Boeing controllers in El Segundo, Calif., confirmed that the satellite is healthy," the statement said.

"The military's demand for communications capabilities is increasing exponentially, and this WGS satellite, along with the others in the series, will provide critical communications services to the war fighters who will depend on its service," said Howard Chambers, vice president and general manager, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems.

"Following a series of orbital maneuvers and in-orbit testing, the satellite is expected to begin Air Force service during the first quarter of 2008, the company said.

Boeing said the WGS series of satellites would "augment and eventually replace the Defense Satellite Communication System constellation as well as the Global Broadcast Service function currently provided by the U.S. Navy's Ultra High Frequency Follow-On satellites. ... It also will reduce the U.S. government's reliance on commercial satellite communications services."

"WGS is a Boeing 702 spacecraft that operates at both X-band and Ka-band frequencies, and provides many important operational features that are not available from any other MILSATCOM system," the company said.

"WGS has 18 reconfigurable coverage areas and the ability to broadcast or multicast transmissions into the various coverage areas and connect users between any and all coverage areas even when operating on different frequency bands," Boeing said.