The 22nd Northrop
Grumman Corporation-built Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite
was successfully launched today by the U.S. Air Force from Cape Canaveral Air
Station.
A Titan IVB rocket and Inertial Upper Stage payload delivery vehicle
carried the satellite into a geosynchronous orbit. DSP 22 joined the existing
constellation on-orbit to give the nation advance warning of ballistic missile
launches and other events.
“With the successful launch of DSP 22, the long-standing cornerstone of
the nation’s early warning system just got stronger,” said Peggy Paul,
Northrop Grumman DSP program manager. “The men and women of the DSP team take
great pride in seeing another one of our products called into service to meet
the Air Force’s current requirements and respond to evolving threats.”
Prior to the launch, the Central Florida Chapter of the Air Force
Association named Northrop Grumman a General Bernard A. Schriever Fellow of
the Aerospace Education Foundation in recognition of DSP’s sustained record of
outstanding support to the Air Force over the past 34 years decades.
Since the first DSP’s launch in 1970, the DSP spacecraft and infrared
sensor have gone through five designs to improve capability, survivability and
life expectancy. The spacecraft have demonstrated remarkable reliability,
exceeding their specified design lives by nearly 250 percent. Northrop
Grumman’s Space Technology sector is responsible for building the spacecraft
and integrating the sensor, and Northrop Grumman’s Electronic System sector
provides the primary infrared payload as well as the strategic and tactical
mission processing.
Northrop Grumman is one of the nation’s leading missile defense prime
contractors. The company was recently awarded a multibillion dollar contract
by the Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency to serve as prime
contractor for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor and is also prime contractor for
the Space Tracking and Surveillance System missile tracking system.
