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SBIRS-High Satellite Launch Delayed One Year
The launch of geostationary satellites for the Space-Based Infrared System High program has fallen a year behind schedule because of technical problems in other sections of the effort, U.S. Air Force Program Executive Officer for Space Lt. Gen. Brian Arnold said yesterday (see GSN, March 31). The SBIRS-High system is set to consist of five geostationary satellites and two payloads on highly elliptical orbit (HEO), according to Defense Daily. To correct technical problems discovered on one of the HEO payloads, however, workers were diverted from the geostationary satellites, accounting for the delay, Arnold said. Due to the delay, the first launch of the geostationary satellites would be moved from October 2006 to fall 2007, Defense Daily reported. Arnold and other officials have also said that the fiscal 2005 cost of the SBIRS-High program has exceeded the White House budget request of $510 million, according to Defense Daily. Two years ago, officials declared that the program had breached the Nunn-McCurdy law, which sets requirements that must be met by a program that has exceeded its cost by 25 percent to continue. Arnold said yesterday, though, that the recent cost increase is not in breach of the Nunn-McCurdy law. “We are in an overrun condition,” he said (Amy Butler, Defense Daily, April 1).
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