several broken solder joints in a subcontract procured gyroscope assembly on the first spacecraft being built. It was feared that a further launch postponement into late 2011 would lead to conflict with the planned launches of NASA's Juno spacecraft and Mars Science Laboratory, which would all use the same launch facility. However, the first GEO launch, SBIRS GEO-1, was successfully conducted on 7 May 2011. According to a Reuters report, the first two SBIRS GEO satellites started operations in 2013. SBIRS GEO-3 launched on 20 January 2017, and SBIRS GEO-4 was successfully deployed on 20 January 2018. In 2017, the United States Air Force requested US$1.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2018 for SBIRS, and funds for advance procurement of SBIRS 7 and 8. While US$643 million in funding was provided for SBIRS in Fiscal Year 2019, funding for SBIRS 7 and 8 was eliminated in favor of a new program, NG-OPIR (Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared). Plans remained to launch SBIRS GEO-5 in 2021 and SBIRS GEO-6 in 2022. SBIRS GEO-5 was successfully launched on 18 May 2021, while SBIRS GEO-6 was successfully launched on 4 August 2022. SBIRS Low (Space Tracking and Surveillance System) The SBIRS Low contract is now managed by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and has been renamed the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS). Original SBIRS Low The SBIRS Low program was originally expected to consist of about 24 satellites in low Earth orbit. The primary purpose of SBIRS Low was the tracking of ballistic missiles; with discrimination between warheads and other objects, such as decoys, that separate from the missile bodies throughout the middle portion of their flights. The system was to have two major sensors, coordinated by an on-board computer: a scanning infrared sensor, designed to acquire ballistic missiles in the early stages of flight, and a tracking infrared sensor, designed to follow missiles, warheads, and other objects such as debris and decoys during the middle and later stages of flight. The tracking sensor would be cooled to very low temperatures. SBIRS Low's original deployment schedule was 2010, the date when its capabilities were said to be needed by the National Missile Defense System. Space Tracking and Surveillance System In 2001, the Missile Defense Agency assessed the programs needed for a national ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) and found that they were lacking in the relatively new arena of space. The MDA decided