The Defense Support Program is a program of the USAF that operated the reconnaissance satellites which form the principal component of the Satellite Early Warning System. The satellites are in geosynchronous orbits, and are equipped with infrared sensors operating through a wide-angle Schmidt camera. The last known DSP satellite was launched in 2007 aboard the first operational flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket.
About Defense Support Program in brief
The Defense Support Program is a program of the USAF that operated the reconnaissance satellites which form the principal component of the Satellite Early Warning System. DSP satellites, which are operated by the 460th Space Wing, detect missile or spacecraft launches and nuclear explosions using sensors that detect the infrared emissions from these intense sources of heat. The satellites are in geosynchronous orbits, and are equipped with infrared sensors operating through a wide-angle Schmidt camera. During Desert Storm, for example, DSP was able to detect the launches of Iraqi Scud missiles and provide timely warnings to civilians and military forces in Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The last known DSP satellite was launched in 2007 aboard the first operational flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket, as the Titan IV had been retired in 2005. All 23 satellites were built by the prime contractor Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, formerly TRW, in Redondo Beach, California. There were five major improvement programs on the 23 satellites, but the last two have been canceled, mainly due to the two SBIRS satellites by the Space and Missile Systems Center. The first successful launch of MIDAS was 24 May 1960 and there were twelve launches before the DSP program replaced it in 1970.
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This page is based on the article Defense Support Program published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
