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Air Force’s second Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite, AEHF-2, arrived at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., from Lockheed Martin’s assembly facility in California, announced Air Force space officials Thursday. Technicians will now prepare the satellite for its scheduled launch into orbit in late April aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, they said. AEHF-2 arrived at Cape Canaveral on Feb. 13 via a C-5 transport aircraft. Once on orbit, it will join AEHF-1, which reached space in August 2010, but didn’t arrive at its intended operational perch until last October due to an anomaly with its onboard propulsion. AEHF satellites are designed to provide survivable and secure global communications to the US military. They will replace the constellation of Milstar satellites currently serving in this role.
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
