Pan-1 [Palladium at Night]

The New Program Gap-filler for UFO-Follow-on Reveals Itself?

PAN-1 [Palladium at Night] the super secret communication spacecraft modeled on the Lockheed Martin A-2100 spacecraft bus design was successfully launched by the 45 th Space Wing into earth orbit on September 8, 2009 on an Atlas-V 401 launch vehicle. The US Government owned spacecraft actual agency organization or organizations was not identified. However its communications mission appears to be related to the U. S. Navy’s Ultra-High Frequency (UFO) Follow-On program constellation of geosynchronous communications spacecraft because of the monitored frequencies emanating from the spacecraft launched in earth orbit. It also appears to in part be serving as an SDS relay satellite combined mission.

This is apparently a major replacement gap-filler program series of spacecraft while waiting on the U. S. Navy delayed Multi-User Objective System (MUOS) satellite. It could also be related to several unidentified program offices in the intelligence community like CIA and NRO or AFTAC for SDS and or operating Stealth UAV intelligence systems from space. This new spacecraft was built on relative short notice 30 month fixed price contract from October 2006 using commercially available generic spacecraft components with some specialized requirements apparently added to fulfill the requirements contracted using a commercially available standardized bus design approach.