The Space Force said Thursday its newest weather satellite is now operational and will soon be collecting and sharing key weather data with military planners and operators.
The satellite, built by Ball Aerospace, is part of the Space Force’s Weather Satellite Follow-on program, or WSF-M. The spacecraft launched more than a year ago and is a first step toward upgrading the service’s military weather constellation, which has been on orbit for 60 years.
Col. Robert Davis, who leads Space Systems Command’s sensing portfolio, said in a statement the satellite’s on-orbit testing went more smoothly than the service expected.
“The operational acceptance of the WSF-M satellite is a pivotal milestone in the Space Force’s focus on transitioning toward a more affordable, scalable and resilient weather satellite constellation,” Davis said.
The Space Force is in the midst of replacing its legacy weather satellite constellation, and WSF-M and its companion program are meant to be a bridge to a future capability. As part of the work, the Space Force is considering a hybrid architecture that would include a mix of smaller, less expensive satellites, commercial systems and government-owned spacecraft.
While the service maps out that approach, its current weather satellite capability – the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP – is operating past its service life and is projected to start running out of fuel next year. DMSP sensors can measure things like moisture in the atmosphere, cloud cover and precipitation.
The Pentagon has been trying for more than 20 years to develop a replacement for DMSP. In the ’90s it kicked off the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System. The effort was canceled after repeated cost and schedule breaches. Lawmakers canceled a second attempt, the Defense Weather Satellite System, in 2012 due to mismanagement.
The Space Force’s current plan for augmenting those sensors while it crafts a long-term strategy is to split the requirements between two programs – WSF-M and the Electro-Optical Weather System, or EWS.
The WSF-M satellites will be able to detect wind speeds and tropical storm intensity and determine snow and soil depth. The EWS satellites will use electro-optical infrared sensors to provide visual imagery of cloud cover and forecasting data to inform military missions.
The Space Force plans to launch a second WSF-M satellite in 2028. It has already launched an EWS cubesat built by Orion Space Systems and plans to fly two more EWS spacecraft built by General Atomics – one this year and a second in 2027.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
