Air Force to host media call on upcoming Space Test Program-2 launch

  • Published
  • By Space and Missile Systems Center Public Affairs Office

The Space and Missile Systems Center’s Public Affairs office will host a media teleconference June 7 at 9 a.m. Pacific / 10 a.m. Mountain / 11 a.m. Central / Noon Eastern to discuss the upcoming Space Test Program-2 mission, the first-ever use of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch vehicle by the Department of Defense.

Teleconference participants include (Subject to change):

Col. Robert Bongiovi, Director, Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate;
Col. Timothy Sejba, Director, Advanced Systems Development Directorate;
Dr. Elsayed Talaat, Director, Office of Projects, Planning, and Analysis for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service;
Dr. Nicky Fox, Heliophysics Division Director in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters;
Ms. Dayna Ise, Technology Demonstration Missions Program Executive in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate;
Col. Dennis Bythewood, Program Executive Officer, Space Development;
Col. Bernard Brining, Director, DOD Space Test Program;
Lt. Col. Andrew Anderson, Chief, Space Test Program Branch;
Lt. Col. Ryan Rose, Chief, Small Launch and Targets Division;
Dr. Walter Lauderdale, STP-2 Mission Director, Falcon Systems & Ops Division


DOD’s Space Test Program, under Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center, is managing the mission. SMC and the broader space community provides innovative space access solutions for research and development experiments that will enhance current operational capabilities, enable future military space systems, and reduce risk for future operational missions.

The STP-2 mission, scheduled for June 22 from Launch Complex-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will demonstrate the performance of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle while providing space access for 24 science and technology space experiments sponsored by the DOD, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. STP-2 will also provide the U.S. Air Force with insight into the SpaceX booster recovery and refurbishing process, enabling future National Security Space missions on SpaceX launch vehicles using previously flown boosters.

Spacecraft on board the STP-2 mission include the Air Force Research Laboratory Demonstration and Science Experiments satellite and the NOAA-sponsored Constellation Observing System for Meteorology Ionosphere & Climate-2, or COSMIC-2 system. The mission also includes several NASA technologies, five small satellites, eight Poly-Picosat Orbital Deployers containing eleven CubeSats, and multiple other research experiments. STP-2 experiments will provide valuable data to improve weather forecasting, space environmental monitoring, spacecraft propulsion, communication, and many other advanced space technologies.

For dial-in information, media must e-mail their name, affiliation and phone number to SMC’s Public Affairs Office at smcpa.media@us.af.mil no later than 4 p.m. June 6. Advance questions on this topic can also be submitted to the e-mail address listed above.

 

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Media representatives who would like to interview a subject matter expert or learn more about the STP-2 launch
should send an email to
smcpa.media@us.af.mil.

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