EL SEGUNDO, Calif., June 28, 2022 – The United States Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command’s (SSC) Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) Wide Field of View (WFOV) Testbed is scheduled to launch June 30, 2022. SSC’s GEO WFOV space vehicle was designed, built and integrated by Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing Company, and will inform the future Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) architecture.

“With Wide Field of View, we’re advancing the technology we need to meet the growing threat environment,” said Col Heather Bogstie, Senior Materiel Leader for SSC’s Resilient Missile Warning, Tracking, and Defense Acquisition Delta. “GEO WFOV will also let us qualify a new satellite bus for GEO at significant cost savings.”

Roughly, one-fourth the size of the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS), WFOV is designed for a one to three year life in GEO. Its primary mission is to explore the ability for a single sensor to perform strategic and tactical missions simultaneously, by continuously monitoring up to one-third of the Earth’s surface. WFOV is also pathfinding prototype operationalization and Integrated Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment (ITW/AA) certification for future missions to follow.

“We are the complete small satellite package – design, build, integration, test and mission operations,” said Jason Kim, chief executive officer, Millennium Space Systems. “We were able to use our scalable flight-tested bus architecture to shorten WFOV’s development cycle.”

Sponsored by SSC and managed by the NASA Ames Research Center, the mid-sized GEO spacecraft will launch aboard USSF-12, a United Launch Alliance rocket. Having previously aced environmental testing, WFOV was declared ready to ship in June 2020. The spacecraft began its journey to the launch site January 31, 2022.

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