Problems with ULA's Vulcan rocket could affect Space Force missions including Next-Gen GEO, Silent Barker, WGS, some NRO satellites, and some space domain awareness satellites.
The U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office announced in December 2017 that they would partner to develop Silent Barker as a replacement for the Space-Based Space Surveillance System.
Silent Barker launched in September 2023.
The U.S. Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office jointly developed and launched Silent Barker.
The Silent Barker acquisition plan was put in place in 2020 and the team took about three years to build the satellites and prepare for launch.
U.S. Space Force ground-based radars and telescopes can catalog larger, basketball-sized objects but cannot provide the finer visibility and detail that Silent Barker aims to deliver.
Silent Barker will observe objects and activities in geosynchronous orbit about 22,0 m above Earth.
These systems include the X-37B spaceplane and the GSSAP and Silent Barker satellites.
Silent Barker is intended to serve as a GEO watchdog sensor for monitoring satellites in the geostationary belt.
Silent Barker is a joint mission of the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. Space Force placed into orbit by an Atlas V on 2023-09-08 to monitor satellites in the geostationary belt.
Silent Barker will form a watchdog constellation of satellites used for tracking other countries’ activities in geostationary orbit.
A classified space surveillance satellite program named Silent Barker is planned for deployment in 2022 and is jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.
There are six additional Atlas 5 missions that ULA was awarded under the follow-on EELV Phase 1A procurement: STP-3, AFSPC-12, AFSPC-8, Silent Barker, SBIRS GEO 5, and SBIRS GEO 6.
United Launch Alliance will receive $441,760,000 under a fixed-price contract to launch SBIRS GEO-5, SBIRS GEO-6, and Silent Barker.
Silent Barker will launch in fiscal year 2022 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.