Lockheed Martin's new SBIRS GEO-1 missile defense satellite is loaded onto a US Air Force C-5 Galaxy at Moffett Air Force Base in Sunnyvale, Calif. for delivery to Cape Canaveral. (Original photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin)
The US Air Force has taken delivery of a first-of-its-kind Lockheed Martin SBIRS GEO-1 missile detection spacecraft, to be launched atop a United Space Alliance Atlas V rocket in early May.
A Lockheed C-5 Galaxy transport plane from the 22nd Airlift Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. safely hauled the satellite cross-country from Moffett Air Force Base, Calif. to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
The new geosynchronous missile warning satellite is the first of four to be built carrying “highly sophisticated scanning and staring sensors” under a US Air Force contract with Lockheed Martin.
