The Air Force completed an early on-orbit checkout of the second space based infrared systems (SBIRS) sensor.
That craft is in a highly elliptical orbit (HEO) over the northern hemisphere. The second sensor is known as SBIRS HEO-2.
This SBIRS HEO-2 is exceeding specifications across the missile warning, missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace awareness mission areas, according to the Air Force.
Compared to the legacy Defense Support Program (DSP) infrared sensor, SBIRS delivers about 10 times better sensitivity and up to five times faster revisit capability. It boasts a wide field of view, increased sensitivity, fast revisit rate, and persistent presence.
The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center unit, the Space Based Infrared Systems Wing, manages SBIRS to develop both the elliptical orbiting payloads and geosynchronous orbiting satellites and sensors as well as the ground systems to support mission operations. SMC is under the Air Force Space Command.
SBIRS effectively detects heat or hot gasses from missiles and other man-made objects, terrestrial events like volcanic eruptions and wildfires, and weather data from clouds and storms. The sensor also provides information on static sources of infrared energy such as flaring methane gas from oil wells and pipelines.
SBIRS HEO is designed to use advanced space sensors and ground systems to provide infrared (heat signature) information from space. The highly elliptical orbiting sensors cover the northern hemisphere for approximately 12 hours a day from egg shaped elliptical orbits reaching 35,000 kilometers above the North Pole.
In November 2006, the Air Force completed checkout on HEO-1. In the program are Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT], Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] unit Aerospace and a government team, enabling the SBIRS Wing to transition operations of the first HEO payload to the 11th Space Warning Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., in November. By this September, alerts from the HEO-1 sensor will be incorporated into the system providing defense support program messaging to warfighters.
The HEO-2 sensor will continue engineering testing over several months leading to full operational use of the payload by Air Force Space Command.