Wednesday night’s launch of the Defense Department’s first Operationally Responsive Space satellite was successful, according to Air Force space officials. They said the prototype imagery satellite deployed 12 minutes after its liftoff aboard a Minotaur I launch vehicle from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s eastern shore. “Words cannot express how proud I am of the entire ORS-1 team,” including Air Force, DOD, and industry personnel, said Col. Carol Welsch, acting director of USAF’s Space Development and Test Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M. She was also the ORS-1 mission director. ORS-1 is designed to provide commanders at the tactical level with overhead imagery to enhance their battlespace awareness. (Los Angeles release)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.