ORS-5 satellite helps protect missile warning system

Next year, a new satellite will join others that help to protect orbiting missile defense platforms. Orbital ATK won a $23.6 million Air Force contract to launch a SensorSat surveillance satellite in mid-2017.

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The satellite, ORS-5 will be placed in low-earth orbit, from where it will scan objects in geosynchronous orbit. Geosynchronous orbit is where many defense and communications satellites are placed, including those designed to detect missiles, because from that vantage point the orbiting satellite remains fixed in one location relative to the rotating Earth.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory is building the satellite, according to an article in Space News.

ORS stands for operationally responsive space.

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