LIftoff! Delta IV rocket launches with military satellite

A powerful Delta IV rocket boosted a high-bandwidth military satellite into orbit Wednesday night, adding much-needed communications capacity for the Department of Defense.

The 217-foot United Launch Alliance rocket roared from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:53 p.m., blasting off from Launch Complex 37 with more than 2 million pounds of thrust.

The rocket could be seen throughout the nearly four-minute firing of its first-stage engine, which was supported by four solid rocket boosters that fell away as the flight climbed southeast over the Atlantic Ocean.

The Air Force’s eighth Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft, or WGS-8, was deployed less than 45 minutes later, on its way to an orbit more than 22,000 miles over the equator.

The $425 million satellite was the latest addition to the military’s highest-capacity network in space.

Each WGS satellite, built by Boeing, has offered 10 times more communications capacity than the entire constellation that preceded it. The new satellite included upgrades increasing its bandwidth by nearly 50 percent over the previous one.

Described as “DirecTV of the DOD,” the WGS system beams everything from high-definition video captured by drones to voice and data for troops in the field, around the clock and anywhere in the world.

“Warfighters use WGS for tactical communications, performing numerous military operations, including humanitarian aid missions,” said Thomas Becht, deputy director of the Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

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Another WGS satellite is being readied for launch in March, and a 10th spacecraft after that. But they are still not enough to satisfy the military’s needs.

The Pentagon in 2011 spent more than $1 billion to lease commercial satellite capacity to complement its own systems, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported last year, citing the most recent available information.

“There is an enormous demand from the warfighter for wideband communications, and unfortunately 10 dedicated (WGS) satellites is insufficient to meet that demand,” said Becht. “As I see it, in the near future, commercial will continue to play a big part.”

The military has started a multi-year study of options for how to provide high-capacity communications, ranging from more WGS satellites to more reliance on commercial operators.

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The launch was ULA’s 11th successful mission this year, and the last of seven national security missions. The mission was the first of the second decade of operations for the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture formed in 2006, which has now launch 114 times without a major failure.

ULA plans to complete its 2016 launch manifest next week: An Atlas V rocket is targeting a 1:26 p.m. Dec. 16 launch of the EchoStar 19 commercial communications satellite.

Earlier next week, on Monday morning, Orbital ATK’s air-launched Pegasus rocket is scheduled to take off from the Cape with a fleet of eight NASA science satellites.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com.And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.