Space vehicle completes tests, on its way to Air Force
The first Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications space vehicle has finished on-orbit testing.
A team has successfully completed on-orbit testing for the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications space vehicle (SV-1), Lockheed Martin said.
The satellite testing included establishing communications networks between combinations of EHF terminals at the backward-compatible Milstar data rates as well as at the new AEHF extended data rates, the company added.
The on-orbit testing began with SV-1, then progressed with SV-1 networked with the Milstar constellation, the company said, adding that completion of this testing paves the way for the satellite to be turned over to the 14th Air Force.
The AEHF team includes the Air Force Military Satellite Communications Systems Directorate at the Space and Missile Systems Center. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company is the AEHF prime contractor, space and ground segments provider as well as system integrator, with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems as the payload provider, the company added.