Boeing completes hardware for SBSS SOC

ST. LOUIS, April 24 (UPI) -- Boeing has finished putting in place the hardware for the U.S. Satellite Operations Center.

The SOC will direct the Space Based Space Surveillance, and with the required hardware now installed, the SOC has received the security certification it needed to launch the SBSS program's integrated testing, Boeing said.

"The SBSS SOC will transform Space Situational Awareness by providing a gateway to a responsive, taskable sensor," said U.S. Air Force Col. James Jordan, commander of the Space Situational Awareness Group in the Space Superiority Systems Wing at the Space and Missiles Center in Los Angeles. "This capability is key to enabling the event-driven operations concept of the future."

Boeing said the SOC would function as the operational command and control system for the SBSS mission. The SOC would direct and carry out mission planning, command satellites, manage satellite health and perform mission data processing.

Boeing said the SOC system was constructed from industry-standard commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software that could be kept operating easily.

The SOC's hardware had been designed with considerable duplication or "redundant" open architecture to make it easier to improve its capabilities in the future with next-generation systems. The SOC's software has already been checked for its ability to fulfill command and telemetry processing with the SBSS space vehicle, and the software is currently going through segment testing, Boeing said.

"We continue to meet all of our contractual milestones as our team continues to develop the Satellite Operations Center," said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager for Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems. "Its ability to respond takes us one step closer to true situational awareness of the United States' space assets."

Boeing said it had "overall responsibility" for the SBSS system and was making the SBSS Ground System with Harris Corp. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory.