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Video by Bryan S Ripple

NTS-3: One of the Department of the Air Force’s three transformational Vanguard programs

Air Force Research Laboratory

Nov. 9, 2020 | 14:16

1st Lt. Jacob Lutz, a systems engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Navigation Technology Satellite-3 program, has built a high-detail NTS-3 model from Legos. Lutz developed the idea of a Lego model as a way to demonstrate the NTS-3 satellite at national conferences and other public forums. As the video shows, he enlisted his wife Danae as an assistant in the construction project, and both of them built and explained the features of the model as they went along. The NTS-3 Vanguard is an experimental navigation satellite that will demonstrate significant new position, navigation and timing technologies to improve the resiliency and robustness of the U.S. Space Force’s Global Positioning System. NTS-3 is projected to launch in 2022. In partnership with the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command and the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, it is one of the Department of the Air Force’s three transformational Vanguard programs to rapidly deliver game-changing capabilities to Department of Defense air and space warfighters. (U.S. Air Force video/Tyrell Etsitty, Air Force Research Laboratory)