Launch Is Delayed for Boeing’s GPS Satellites
Technical issues have caused a delay of more than a year in a Boeing Co. contract to build a new generation of global positioning system satellites, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
The first of 12 new GPS satellites is now scheduled to be launched in May 2008, the Air Force said. The initial launch had been planned for January.
The Pentagon said the “more realistic schedule” was decided upon after an independent review, which also recommended adding an undisclosed amount of funding to the program.
The satellites are being built at Chicago-based Boeing’s manufacturing facility in El Segundo, while engineering work for the program is performed in Huntington Beach.
The Air Force blamed the delays on the complexity of the circuit design for the satellites, the magnitude of the assembly and integration effort, and the late delivery of certain parts by Boeing subcontractors.
Boeing’s performance on the program “deteriorated because of a lack of clear functional organization lines for accountability within the prime contractor’s management chain,” but management and authority changes are underway, the Air Force said.
In addition, the Air Force said Boeing’s award fees for the program were being reviewed by the military’s GPS program office.
Boeing has run into problems with other military space projects, including a classified spy satellite program known as future imagery architecture.
Until now, the GPS program -- with more than 20 satellites already in orbit -- had been relatively free of the problems that plagued other military satellite projects.
Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. are building new GPS satellites to upgrade and replenish those already in space, which provide navigational data that are used for both military and civilian purposes.
Uses range from precise missile targeting to helping drivers of properly equipped cars find their way around.
Boeing said it had taken “aggressive steps to resolve technical issues” on the satellites and that the issues were not unusual for advanced spacecraft projects.
Boeing spokeswoman Diana Ball said the recent independent cost and technical reviews made the Air Force and Boeing confident that the program was “on solid footing” to meet current cost and schedule goals.
Sources familiar with the program said the delay was caused in part by additional Pentagon requirements for the new GPS satellites.
A program to build a third generation of GPS satellites, which had been due to kick off this year, was also far behind schedule, partly because of funding constraints facing the Pentagon and the fact that existing satellites were lasting longer than expected, the sources said.
