U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) is looking for companies able to provide an alternative bus and integration support for the Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) Weather Systems (EWS), which are to replace four Lockheed Martin [LMT] Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites, to provide military forces with global terrestrial cloud forecasts and theater weather imagery data.
DMSP launches began in 1962, and the satellites are expected to retire by 2025 when EWS is to come online.
SSC “seeks to identify industry sources capable of providing a spacecraft bus and integration support for a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), polar-orbiting, sun-synchronous weather sensor being developed to meet Space-Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM) requirements,” SSC said in a business notice. “The weather sensor is expected to be provided as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). The USSF requires information on industry capability to provide a spacecraft bus, integrate the sensor, and provide post-launch support services.”
“The weather system incorporating the sole GFE sensor is intended to replace the DMSP Operational Linescan System (OLS) sensor, providing full cloud detection and characterization capabilities and theater weather imagery,” SSC said. “The multispectral GFE weather payload being developed is planned to be available for integration onto a spacecraft in early FY24. The USSF seeks to acquire one or more space vehicles (SVs) and the supporting ground and data delivery systems with an Initial Launch Capability (ILC) date as early as FY26 and NLT [no later than] FY28.”
On Jan. 3, Space Force launched an EWS technical demonstration cube satellite by Colorado’s Orion Space Solutions aboard the SpaceX Transporter-6 mission from Cape Canaveral (Defense Daily, Jan. 3).
The Jan. 3 launch of the Orion Space Solutions’ EWS cube satellite fulfills the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act “mandate to launch a weather EO/IR pathfinder prototype by FY23.”
In November, 2021, General Atomics said that Space Force had chosen to make the General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems’ (GA-EMS) design for EWS a three- to five-year prototype-–an expansion of a one-year on-orbit demonstration (Defense Daily, Nov. 29, 2021).
The spacecraft “has been up-scoped from a one year on orbit sensor demonstration to a three-to-five-year prototype spacecraft with residual operational capability,” GA-EMS said at the time.
In June 2020, Space Force awarded $309 million to Raytheon Technologies [RTX]; a GA-EMS team; and an Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates (ASTRA) team for EWS under the Space Enterprise Consortium.
Space Force was to select a winning design or designs last year.
Two earlier DMSP replacement programs, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and the Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS), were canceled in 2010 by the White House and in 2012 by the Air Force, respectively.