Air Force Space Command will upgrade its East Coast launch range -- based at the Cape Canaveral Air Station -- from July 26 through August 12, and again from August 20 through August 28. This will improve the way launch-related data is transmitted, from a landline system to a satellite system.
"These improvements provide a significant increase in data handling capabilities and overall efficiency," a press release said.
While the systems is changed, NASA and other launch operators will not be able to use the launch facilities at Cape Canaveral.
Launch data for the East Coast range -- including fuel consumption, engine use, and rocket position -- is carried through a communications network based at Cape Canaveral with off-site stations in Ascension, an island in the South Atlantic, Antigua, and Jupiter, Florida. Upgrades will take place at each site.
The improvements are part of a 10-year Air Force program begun in 1993, called Range Standardization and Automation, to upgrade its East and West Coast launch ranges "from 1960s technology to current technology," Space Command spokeswoman Capt. Nicole Greenwood said.
"This new communication system serves as a backbone to future RSA modernization efforts, increasing the reliability and flexibility of the Eastern Range," said commander of the Air Force's 45th Space Wing, Lt. Col. Wayne Thomspon, in a press release.
The upgrades had imposed a deadline on heavily-delayed shuttle mission STS-93, which launched from Cape Canaveral on July 23. Had the mission been postponed again, the launch would have had to wait until mid-August, after the scheduled end of the first phase of improvements.
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