Military Embedded Systems

Next-Gen OPIR missile-warning satellite for U.S. Space Force advances toward launch

News

December 11, 2024

Lisa Daigle

Assistant Managing Editor

Military Embedded Systems

Next-Gen OPIR missile-warning satellite for U.S. Space Force advances toward launch
Image courtesy Lockheed Martin

SUNNYVALE, Calif. Lockheed Martin reports that it fully assembled, powered on, and advanced the U.S. Space Force’s first Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) Block 0 satellite to system level testing at the Lockheed Martin satellite facility.

The Next-Gen OPIR satellite is one of two spacecraft that are slated to operate as the GEO component of the Space Force’s planned multi-orbit, multilayer missile-warning and tracking architecture to protect the U.S. and its allies against ballistic-missile, hypersonic vehicle, and other emerging threats.

According to the Lockheed Martin announcement, Next-Gen OPIR is designed to deliver missile warning, tracking, and defense in the highly contested and congested space domain from a high orbital vantage point, around 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface. The advanced missile-warning capability will work together with Space Systems Command’s medium Earth orbit "Track Custody" prototypes and the Space Development Agency’s low-Earth-orbit tracking layer satellites. 

This space vehicle combines two major satellite components -- Lockheed Martin’s LM 2100 bus  and an advanced missile-warning sensor payload built by Raytheon. The successful advance to system-level testing will include a focus on environmental testing s the Next-Gen OPIR team moves toward a 2025 launch.

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