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WGS Satellite Successfully Launched

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CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – DECEMBER 05: In this handout provided by NASA,The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37 at 7:05 a.m. EST on December 5, 2014 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Orion spacecraft orbited Earth twice, reaching an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles above Earth before landing. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

The eighth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite has been successfully launched into space.

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket soared from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 7 at 6:53 p.m. EST. 

“WGS-8, the second Block II Follow-on satellite, supports communications links in the X-band and Ka-band spectra,” a United Launch Alliance announcement said. “The WGS-8 satellite will be able filter and downlink up to 8.088 GHz of bandwidth. WGS satellites are an important element of a new high-capacity satellite communications system providing enhanced communications capability to our troops in the field.”

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Michael Peck is a correspondent for Defense News and a columnist for the Center for European Policy Analysis. He holds an M.A. in political science from Rutgers University. Find him at theuncommondefense.com. His email is mikedefense1@gmail.com.