The 19th Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft successfully launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Thursday morning from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., according to a release. “The launch of DMSP-19 continues the vital weather support to operational commanders for another decade,” said Col. Scott Larrimore, director of the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Defense Weather Systems Directorate. The satellite will orbit the Earth in a “near polar, sun-synchronous orbit” and is capable of covering the entire Earth in about 12 hours, states the release. The satellite is slated to provide environmental data into the mid-2020s and is part of an extension of DMSP operations that resulted from a 2012 reboot of the Defense Weather Satellite System. It is the third ULA mission out of a slated 15 in 2014, according to a company release.
The Air Force is moving forward with a new, algorithm-driven system to help U.S. Northern Command better detect airborne threats. NORTHCOM and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which are tasked with protecting the homeland from attack, depend on a slew of radars and other data systems to monitor U.S.…