Video

Video by Senior Airman Kevyn Allen, Staff Sgt. Jourdan Barrons, Airman Tia Herring, Tech. Sgt. Duncan McElroy, Jon Zanone

DET 1, 23 SPACE OPERATIONS SQUADRON BROLL

2D Audiovisual Squadron

Sept. 20, 2022 | 3:57

The 23rd Space Operations Squadron, Detachment 1, is a component of Delta 6, located at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado, and is physically located south, southeast of Thule Air Base, Greenland.

Mission
The Detachment 1 mission is to provide telemetry, tracking and commanding operations to the United States and allied government satellite programs.

Detachment 1 is the northernmost unit of seven worldwide satellite tracking stations in the Air Force Satellite Control Network. The squadron operationally controls Detachment 1 within the AFSCN. Detachment 1 is located approximately 3.5 miles south, southeast of Thule Air Base, Greenland.

Detachment 1 has an automated remote tracking station system that operates an antenna 46-feet-wide in diameter and a remote block change upgrade system that will operate an antenna 42-feet-wide in diameter in May 2020.

The detachment’s extreme northern location allows contact with polar orbiting satellites10-12 times per day. Detachment 1 provides telemetry, tracking and commanding for communication with surveillance satellites of the highest national priority; communications, navigation and weather satellites; and NASA missions. It also provides ground relay for more than 190 Department of Defense and allied satellites ranging in altitude from 120 miles to 24,800 miles above the earth's surface and conducts more than 15,000 satellite contacts per year with a 99.3 percent success rate, 24/7.