The launch of the SES-2 satellite with an experimental Commercially...

Air Force, is performing “exceptionally well,” said Doug Loverro, executive director of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Going forward, he said, “we don’t want this to be serendipitous … We want this to be planned.” The government must put together a payload development activity “and match it up with the predictable timelines that the commercial world has” in order to produce payload on a more predictable pattern, he said. Effective and simple interfaces are needed “to accommodate these payloads as they come along,” said Mike Hamel, Orbital Sciences Corp. senior vice president. “It’s important to sync up the path of payload in its development with commercial communications satellites,” he said: “You need to have readily available payloads if you're going to take advantage of commercial satellites as host vehicles.” The jury’s still out on how the effort should be funded, Loverro said: “As we look toward the future, we're looking for a greater variety to meet our mission needs.” The Department of Defense would establish a program to be funded over a long period of time, he added. Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) is analyzing the data that comes from the payload, said Tom Taverney, SAIC senior vice president. It’s simple to build, “it doesn’t weigh much and it allows you the advantage of steering,” he said. The military satellite community needs payloads, Loverro said: “We don’t know which satellites the payloads are going to be on, but through innovation and willingness to move down this path, we can make the match work.”