Launch of a GPS navigation satellite on a SpaceX rocket

The US Army’s second SpaceX launch will lift off in three days from Florida and send a GPS navigation satellite into orbit Wednesday, strengthening the global positioning and timing network as four other GPS spacecraft are stored at Lockheed Martin’s factory. launched as needed over the next few years.

The launch of the US Space Force’s GPS mission 3 SV06 — the sixth spacecraft in the latest generation of GPS 3 series satellites — was set for 7:10 am EDT (1210 GMT) Wednesday from Pad 40 on the Cape Canaveral Force Station Satellite in Florida. . The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry the satellite into orbit. Falcon 9 has a 15-minute launch window on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s launch of a new Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite comes less than three days after a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center that carried two military satellites into a geosynchronous orbit. Space Force officials said the mission was a success.

Forecasters predict there will be more than a 90% chance of favorable weather Wednesday morning for Falcon 9’s takeoff from Cape Canaveral, but officials will be monitoring wind and sea conditions in the upgrade area. There is a moderate to high risk that conditions are unfavorable for the first stage landing, which could prompt SpaceX to delay the launch.

After liftoff, the 229-foot (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket will head northeast from Cape Canaveral to position GPS satellite 3 SV06 at the appropriate altitude and slope for its final launch position in the GPS constellation.

Following a standard launch profile, the Falcon 9 will power nine kerosene-fired first-stage engines for approximately two and a half minutes. The booster will lock on and drop from the upper stage of the Falcon 9, which will continue into orbit using GPS satellites, first placing the payload into a parking orbit about eight minutes after liftoff.

Around the same time, the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster – designed B1077 – will drop from the sky and slowly land on a SpaceX drone ship stationed several hundred miles east of Charleston, South Carolina. The drone booster ship, slated for its second trip into space, will once again be brought to Cape Canaveral for repairs and reuse in future missions.

The payload aboard the Falcon 9 will be dumped moments after the top-level engines start for first combustion. SpaceX has sent a rescue ship into the Atlantic Ocean to recover two nose cone halves for reuse, after the parachutes landed in the ocean.

Approximately 63 minutes into the mission, the Falcon 9’s upper stage will fire for approximately 44 seconds. The powerful engines, generating more than 200,000 pounds of thrust, will propel the GPS 3 spacecraft SV06 into a long orbit that spans some 12,550 miles (20,200 kilometers) at its highest point.

After flying within the communications range of Space Force ground stations in Hawaii and California, the rocket will deploy GPS satellites approximately 1 hour and 29 minutes after liftoff.

Over the next two weeks, the satellite will use its orbital lift engine to maneuver into a circular orbit of the middle Earth 12,550 miles above Earth at an inclination of 55 degrees. If all goes according to plan, the new satellite, nicknamed “Amelia Earhart” after its pioneering flight, will be transferred to the control of Space Force operators.

The GPS 3 spacecraft SV06 is the sixth in a series of GPS 3 series satellites built by Lockheed Martin. The satellite weighs 9,595 pounds (4,352 kilograms) when fired fully on propellant, according to Colonel Young Ha, Senior Gear Commander for GPS Spacecraft Delta at Space Systems Command.

“The spacecraft is in good health and all systems are functioning,” Ha said Tuesday in a telephone conference with reporters.

Andre Trotter, vice president of navigation systems at Lockheed Martin, said the company has four more GPS series 3 satellites ready to be recalled by the Space Force.

“We currently have four more Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites at our facility in Colorado, available for launch and ready to answer the Space Force’s call,” Trotter told reporters Tuesday at a pre-launch news conference. These satellites, GPS 3 numbers SV07 through SV10, are the final spacecraft in the first batch of Lockheed Martin GPS 3 satellites ordered by the Pentagon in 2008.

The next GPS satellite, GPS 3 SV07, is slated to launch in mid-2024 aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. It is a candidate to be the first national security payload to fly on ULA’s new Vulcan launch vehicle.

The 2008 contract covered construction of the first eight GPS 3 satellites, valued at $3.6 billion. The Army ordered two additional GPS 3 satellites at a later date. The first 3 GPS satellites were launched in 2018, and the newest mission, SV05, was launched in June 2021.

Military officials were unable to give an exact price for the GPS 3 SV06 spacecraft, but the average cost per satellite in a 2008 purchase was about $600 million adjusted for inflation.

Series 3 GPS Navigation Satellites are designed for a lifespan of up to 15 years, which is an improvement over the design lifetime of previous generation GPS satellites of seven and a half years and 12 years. GPS 3 satellites provide three times better accuracy and up to eight times better anti-jamming capabilities than GPS spacecraft, according to Lockheed Martin.

GPS 3 satellites also offer new L-band civilian signals that are compatible with other international navigation satellite networks, such as Europe’s Galileo program. Combining signals from GPS, Galileo, and other navigation satellites can improve the accuracy of space location measurements.

The US military uses GPS satellites for smart bombs and other precision-guided munitions. Troops rely on the network, which requires at least 24 satellites for global coverage, to provide pole-to-pole positioning data.

Lockheed Martin won a follow-up contract from the Army in 2018 to build up to 22 updated 3F GPS satellites. The Space Force has placed a firm Lockheed Martin order for the first 10 3F GPS satellites, which will provide the Army with new capabilities such as enhanced regional protection and improved anti-jamming capabilities, an enhanced search and rescue payload, and a variety of laser reflectors to assist provide more accurate data about the location of each spacecraft in orbit. , information that will lead to more accurate location information for ground users.

L3Harris Technologies manufactures navigation payloads for the Global Positioning System (GPS) 3 satellite.

Civilians use global positioning systems on their smartphones, and aircraft use enhanced GPS signals for precise landing and in-flight navigation. Banks use time signals from GPS satellites to time financial transactions.

“GPS has become an important part of our national infrastructure,” said Trotter.

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