Two Air Force Space Command space operations squadrons, the 2nd SOPS and 19th SOPS at Schriever AFB, Colo., took charge of the new GPS satellite shortly after its launch March 24. “We’re getting ready to provide its combat effects to warfighters as soon as possible,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Schiess, 2nd SOPS operations officer. The GPS IIR-20(M) spacecraft is the 34th satellite in the GPS constellation, with 31 of those 34 currently transmitting navigation and timing signals to users. AFSPC had planned to launch the satellite in June 2008, but there was a fault with the 40-second timer that triggers separation of the third stage booster that Air Force and contractor engineers had to resolve first, according to Lt. Col. John Wagner, mission director with Space and Missile Systems Center’s Launch and Range Systems Wing at Los Angeles AFB, Calif. (Schriever report by SSgt. Don Branum)
The U.S. military is carrying out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico using U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Pentagon’s effort to secure the southern border at the direction of President…