NTS-3 Satellite Prepared for Launch by L3Harris
The next-generation GPS wingman NTS-3 satellite is being prepared for launch by L3Harris. The experimental satellite, designed, built and tested by L3Harris, will help shape the future of U.S. positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities and defeat the threat that contested, degraded and denied PNT poses to our national security.
“Our goal is to show that NTS-3’s technology will not only address these evolving threats, but it will also provide our warfighters with a responsive and flexible capability to ensure mission success.”
L3Harris Fellow Tara Solorzano.
Just as NTS-1 and NTS-2 served as the foundation for today’s global positioning system (GPS) constellation in the 1970s, NTS-3 is on track to transform current U.S. military PNT capabilities and lay the foundation for multilayer PNT resiliency.
The NTS-3 satellite is an experimental platform designed to prove resilient, robust and reprogrammable PNT functionality in space. It is also the first satellite that can simultaneously broadcast and receive GPS information, which is an essential feature that will allow U.S. forces to operate successfully in GPS-denied environments and areas prone to spoofing.
“If you watch the news today, it’s easy to see that the threats posed by our adversaries are becoming bolder, more frequent and more sophisticated,” said Tara Solorzano, who is an L3Harris Fellow, a title given to the company’s top technical leaders and innovators. “Our goal is to show that NTS-3’s technology will not only address these evolving threats, but it will also provide our warfighters with a responsive and flexible capability to ensure mission success.”
NTS-3 Satellite Being Integrated at Kirtland AFB
In January, the AFRL announced a major program milestone when L3Harris delivered the NTS-3 vehicle to Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, to prepare the satellite for launch later this year. L3Harris and AFRL will work together to complete space vehicle testing, launch vehicle integration and enterprise integration to ensure compatibility between the control segment, ground receivers and the satellite vehicle itself.
Not only does NTS-3 have the ability to focus powerful beams to ground forces, it’s also able to minimize the impacts of GPS jamming through rapidly reprogrammable signal waveforms, frequency agility and increased signal strength. The experimental satellite’s embedded software and firmware is reprogrammable on orbit. When paired with agile and reprogrammable user receivers, this will allow the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Space Force (USSF) to react in real time as threats change on the battlefield. Additionally, NTS-3’s enhanced processors can support more complex signals – now and into the future.
“Think of NTS-3 as GPS’ next-generation wingman that will provide our forces with uninterrupted PNT,” Solorzano said. “This technology is designed to defeat the threat that contested, degraded and denied PNT poses to our national security.”
AFRL has booked a ticket for NTS-3 aboard USSF-106. It’s scheduled to launch into space in late 2023 aboard United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. Once in space, NTS-3 will remain in a near-geosynchronous orbit for an inaugural year of testing.
(Source: L3Harris news release. Images provided and from file)