Launch Countdown

Nov. 30, 2009

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

A Delta IV rocket is slated to carry the Air Force’s newest communications satellite, WGS-3, into orbit on Wednesday from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., said officials with the installation’s 45th Space Wing in a release. WGS-3 is the third in the series of Wideband Global Satellite Communications satellites that the Air Force is procuring to augment and eventually replace the legacy Defense Satellite Communications System constellation. Each WGS spacecraft provides a giant leap in communications bandwidth over DSCS satellites. WGS-3 will reside in orbit over the eastern Atlantic Ocean, joining WGS-1 that sits above the Pacific Ocean, and WGS-2, which supporters warfighters in Afghanistan and Iraq from its perch high above the Indian Ocean.

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

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