[SatNews]The U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] have delivered the third Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) spacecraft to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, where it will be prepared for a January 2015 liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

Atlas V launch vehicle diagram.

MUOS operates like a smart phone cell tower in the sky, vastly improving current secure mobile satellite communications for warfighters on the move. For the first time, MUOS Wideband Code Division Multiple Access technology users will have beyond-line-of-sight capability to transmit and receive voice and data using an Internet Protocol-based system. MUOS-3’s safe transport to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station began from Lockheed Martin’s Sunnyvale, California, facility to nearby Moffett Federal Airfield. There, the 60th Air Mobility Wing of Travis Air Force Base loaded the satellite aboard a C-5 aircraft for final shipment on November 5.

Prior to launch, Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians at the Cape will complete post shipment testing. Lockheed Martin will fuel the satellite’s propulsion system and the spacecraft will be encapsulated inside the launch vehicle’s payload fairing. The encapsulated spacecraft will then be integrated on top of an Atlas V launch vehicle for final integrated testing and closeout preparations for launch.

MUOS-2 was launched and handed over to the Navy for operations in 2013. MUOS-1 was launched and became operational in 2012. These two on-orbit MUOS satellites already are demonstrating new capabilities, especially in the Arctic, an area previously beyond the coverage of UHF satellites and growing in interest for transportation and natural resources exploration above 65 degrees north latitude. In the past year MUOS successfully connected users near the Arctic poles during independent testing by Lockheed Martin—and their industry partners General Dynamics, Rockwell Collins and Harris—as well as during the U.S. Navy’s 2014 Ice Exercise (ICEX) and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Arctic Shield 2014.

Artistic rendition of the
MUOS-2 satellite.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Sunnyvale, California, is the MUOS prime contractor and system integrator. The Navy's Program Executive Office for Space Systems and its Communications Satellite Program Office, San Diego, California, are responsible for the MUOS program.

For additional information regarding Lockheed Martin and MUOS, please visit http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/mobile-user-objective-system--muos-.html

The U.S. Navy's Program Executive Office for Space Systems infosite is located at http://www.public.navy.mil/spawar/PEOSpaceSystems/Pages/default.aspx