Block II
WGS-4, the first of the Block II, was launched by United Launch Alliance from SLC-37B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by a Delta IV Medium+ (5,4) on January 20, 2012, 00:38 AM GMT.
WGS-5 was successfully launched by a Delta IV rocket flying in the Medium+(5,4) configuration, with lift-off taking place from SLC-37B in Florida at 20:27 local time on May 24, 2013.
In May, 2013, Boeing reported the WGS-6 satellite had been shipped to Florida in preparation for a scheduled launch later in 2013.
These satellites represent the Block II WGS satellites.
On Aug. 23, 2010, Boeing was awarded an Air Force contract worth $182 million to begin work on the seventh WGS satellite. The new spacecraft is being procured under the WGS Block II follow-on contract. The contract will ultimately include options for production of up to six WGS satellites.
Read more about this topic: Wideband Global SATCOM System
Famous quotes containing the word block:
“Only he who can view his own past as an abortion sprung from compulsion and need can use it to full advantage in the present. For what one has lived is at best comparable to a beautiful statue which has had all its limbs knocked off in transit, and now yields nothing but the precious block out of which the image of one’s future must be hewn.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)