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Boeing completes critical WGS sat test

Jun 13, 2007 8:00pm

(Report via NewsEdge) Boeing recently completed end-to-end testing of the Wideband Global SatCom (WGS) payload command and control system, in preparation for the launch of the first WGS satellite this summer.

During the tests, the newly installed WGS ground station equipment at the CampRobertsWidebandSatelliteCommunicationsOperationsCenter in Paso Robles, Calif. communicated with a WGS satellite located at Boeing's El Segundo, Calif. satellite factory.

It routed operational commands through the SatelliteOperationsCenter at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo. and a US Air Force satellite control network connection at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

The tests were designed to ensure that the system, designed by Boeing and ITT Corp., can communicate with a WGS satellite.

Boeing is under US Air Force contract to build three WGS Block 1 and two WGS Block 2 satellites, each of them a Boeing 702 model. The first Block 2 satellite is expected to launch in early 2011.