March 2020 Adaptive Launch Solutions, under contract with the U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Launch Enterprise Mission Manifest Office (MMO) and in partnership with Parsons, delivered a fully tested and integrated multi-manifest small satellite vehicle, known as TDO-2, launched aboard the Atlas V 551 carrying the Advance Extremely High Frequency (AEHF)-6 primary satellite. On March 26, 2020, TDO-2 became the first launched and deployed satellite by the newly formed U.S. Space Force.
TDO-2 was a multi-manifest small satellite vehicle flying with the AEHF-6 mission carrying multiple U.S. Government payloads that will provide optical calibration capabilities, which supported space domain awareness.
The payload was integrated on the aft-end of the Centaur upper stage where it deployed the TDO-2 multi-manifest satellite vehicle that deployed after the second main engine cut off (MECO 2) and prior to the anchor AEHF satellite. This was only the second time this event has occurred during a National Security Space Launch mission
Considering the historical integration timeline for traditional satellites is approximately 24 months, this is just another example of how ALS and the US Space Force MMO is driving integration flexibility and responsiveness into the National Security Space planning process and rapidly delivering capability to the warfighter.
