Key launch preparations include an integrated system test to ensure the satellite's flight worthiness after travel to the Cape. Following this month-long test, the satellite is fueled and moved to the launch pad where it will be mated to an Inertial Upper Stage rocket and the Titan 4B launch vehicle. A mission dress rehearsal, including a simulated count-down exercise, is held a few weeks prior to launch.

"The upcoming launch continues DSP's three-decade-long history of service to the country," said Martin Melnick, TRW's DSP program manager. "DSP can be counted on to continue providing early warning of missile launches and nuclear events well into the next century."

TRW builds the 5,200-pound DSP spacecraft under contract to the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center and integrates the sensor payload provided by associate contractors, Aerojet, of Azusa, Calif., and Sandia Laboratories of Albuquerque, N.M. Eighteen DSP satellites have been launched since 1970, and TRW is under contract to deliver a total of 23 satellites.

DSP serves the nation as an orbiting sentry 22,300 miles above the Earth, using infrared sensors to detect and provide early warning of strategic and tactical ballistic missile launches and nuclear explosions. DSP has been the spaceborne segment of NORAD's Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment System since 1970.

DSP satellites have exceeded their specified design lives by 125 percent through five upgrade programs. The upgrades have improved satellite capability, survivability and life expectancy, allowing DSP to provide accurate, reliable data in the face of constantly changing requirements.

Today's DSP satellites are far more sensitive than the original satellites, with three times the number of infrared detectors. DSP satellites detected SCUD launches during the 1991 Gulf War, and post-event data reduction shows they have detected forest fires, detonations, explosions and other natural events.