Technicians at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., recently encapsulated the first Wideband Global Satellite, working toward an Oct. 9 launch date aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. The WGS system is slated to replace the two-decade-old Defense Satellite Communication System and greatly surpass its capability. In fact, Col. Donald Robbins, who heads the WGS effort for Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, said that the launch of WGS SV-1 put us on “the cusp of providing more capacity than the entire on-orbit” DSCS constellation.
An aircraft that took off from the Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, Calif., crashed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on the morning of March 5, the 412th Test Wing confirmed. The “non-military aircraft” came down “in an uninhabited area” of the California installation. The two pilots ejected…