Written by Vector1Media Monday, 17 March 2008 09:54
The GPS IIR-19(M) satellite, built by a team led by Lockheed Martin, was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta II rocket. This satellite is the sixth member of the modernized Block IIR-M and the nineteenth IIR overall.
Its ITT payload features a number of important improvements over earlier generations including two new signals: one civil (designated L2C) and the other military (called M-code). Block IIR-M satellites also feature higher output power.
“ITT is proud to be on the cutting edge of payload technology used on the Block IIR-M satellites,” said Chris Young, president of ITT Space Systems Division. “Every GPS satellite has featured an ITT payload—a span stretching more than 30 years—and we’ll continue to create new innovations for future launches.”
The launch of the seventh GPS Block IIR-M satellite, designated IIR-20(M), is tentatively scheduled for June. That satellite will boast an add-on demonstration payload, located on the L5 frequency, which ITT developed for Lockheed Martin and delivered two months ahead of schedule.
ITT’s Space Systems Division provides innovative remote sensing and navigation solutions to customers in the Department of Defense, intelligence, space science and commercial aerospace to help them visualize and understand critical events happening on Earth, in the air, or in space in time to take effective action. Leveraging comprehensive capabilities, Space Systems’ solutions span from image and data collection through processing and dissemination. Key applications include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; high-resolution commercial imaging; space science; meteorology and Earth sciences; GPS navigation; image and data processing and dissemination; and space control and missile defense. For more information on ITT’s Space Systems Division, please visit ssd.itt.com.
