Paper Session III-C - Technology Reuse on the Spacelift Ranges

The Range Standardization and Automation (RSA) program is designed to completely update both of Air Force Space Command’s ranges: the Eastern Range at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida, and the Western Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. As part of this modernization, several new technologies are under consideration to improve system performance and reduce operating and maintenance costs. Several of these technologies have the potential to reduce costs to vehicles launched off the ranges, and change the format of tracking data from the range. The RSA program is planned for three phases. Phase I was awarded by the Space and Missile Systems Center to the Harris Corp. in 1993. It addresses some of the more pressing needs on the ranges such as a new communications system for the Eastern Range and new telemetry processing systems for both ranges. Phase IIA was awarded to Lockheed Martin in 1995 to develop a completely modernized architecture for both ranges, and complete the upgrade of all command, control, and communications systems, and other systems such as weather and optics. Phase IIB, planned for award in 2002, will implement the fixed instrumentation part of the Phase IIA architecture