The U.S. Air Force’s second Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) missile warning satellite recently passed a key review and will now begin environmental testing, the service announced July 25.
The second SBIRS craft, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Sunnyvale, Calif., completed its baseline integrated system test, which demonstrated for the first time all of the satellite’s systems operating together as they would in space, the Air Force said in a press release. The spacecraft will now enter vibration testing, which will be followed by thermal vacuum testing in advance of a planned launch in 2012.
The first SBIRS satellite was carried to geosynchronous orbit in May by an Atlas 5 rocket.
