SpaceX’s second launch for the U.S. army in three days is ready to blast off from Florida and ship a GPS navigation satellite tv for pc into orbit Wednesday, reinforcing the worldwide positioning and timing community as 4 extra GPS spacecraft are in storage at a Lockheed Martin manufacturing facility in Colorado to be launched as wanted over the subsequent few years.
The launch of the U.S. House Pressure’s GPS 3 SV06 mission — the sixth spacecraft within the newest era of GPS 3-series satellites — is ready for 7:10 a.m. EST (1210 GMT) Wednesday from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral House Pressure Station in Florida. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will give the satellite tv for pc a journey into orbit. The Falcon 9 has a 15-minute launch window Wednesday.
The launch of the brand new GPS satellite tv for pc Wednesday comes lower than three days after a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket blasted off from Kennedy House Heart carrying two army satellites into geosynchronous orbit. That mission was profitable, House Pressure officers mentioned.
Forecasters predict a larger than 90% likelihood of favorable climate Wednesday morning for liftoff of the Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral, however officers will watch wind and sea situations downrange within the booster restoration space. There’s a reasonable to excessive threat these situations received’t be favorable for touchdown of the primary stage, which may immediate SpaceX to delay the launch.
As soon as it lifts off, the 229-foot-tall (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket will head northeast from Cape Canaveral to position the GPS 3 SV06 satellite tv for pc on the correct altitude and inclination to succeed in a remaining working place within the GPS constellation.
Following a regular launch profile, the Falcon 9 will fireplace its 9 kerosene-fueled first stage engines for about two-and-a-half minutes. The booster will shut down and drop away from the Falcon 9’s higher stage, which is able to proceed into orbit with the GPS satellite tv for pc, first putting the payload right into a parking orbit about eight minutes after liftoff.
At across the similar time, the Falcon 9’s first stage booster — designed B1077 — will drop out of the sky and sluggish for touchdown on a SpaceX drone ship positioned just a few hundred miles east of Charleston, South Carolina. The drone ship will convey the booster, set to make its second journey to area, again to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment and reuse on a future mission.
The payload fairing on high of the Falcon 9 will jettison just a few moments after ignition of the higher stage engine for its first burn. SpaceX has dispatched a restoration ship into the Atlantic to additionally retrieve the 2 halves of the nostril cone for reuse, after the aeroshells parachute into the ocean.
About 63 minutes into the mission, the Falcon 9’s higher stage will reignite for about 44 seconds. The highly effective engine, producing greater than 200,000 kilos of thrust, will propel the GPS 3 SV06 spacecraft into an elongated orbit stretching to an altitude of some 12,550 miles (20,200 kilometers) at its highest level.
After flying into communications vary of House Pressure floor stations in Hawaii and California, the rocket will deploy the GPS satellite tv for pc at about 1 hour and 29 minutes after liftoff.
Over the subsequent one-to-two weeks, the satellite tv for pc will use its personal orbit-raising engine to maneuver right into a round Medium Earth Orbit 12,550 miles above Earth at an inclination of 55 levels. If all goes in line with plan, the brand new satellite tv for pc, nicknamed “Amelia Earhart” after the aviation pioneer, will probably be transitioned to the management of House Pressure operators.
The GPS 3 SV06 spacecraft is the sixth in a line of GPS 3-series satellites constructed by Lockheed Martin. In its launch configuration totally fueled with propellant, the satellite tv for pc weighs 9,595 kilos (4,352 kilograms), in line with Col. Jung Ha, senior materiel chief for the GPS House Autos Acquisition Delta at House Techniques Command.
“The spacecraft is wholesome and all techniques are go,” Ha mentioned Tuesday in a convention name with reporters.
Andre Trotter, Lockheed Martin’s vice chairman of navigation techniques, mentioned the corporate has 4 extra GPS 3-series satellites prepared for “name up” by the House Pressure.
“We at the moment have 4 extra GPS satellites in our Colorado facility which can be obtainable for launch and are ready to reply the House Pressure’s name,” Trotter advised reporters Tuesday in a pre-launch information convention. These satellites, numbered GPS 3 SV07 by means of SV10, are the ultimate spacecraft in Lockheed Martin’s preliminary batch of GPS 3 satellites ordered by the Pentagon in 2008.
The following GPS satellite tv for pc, GPS 3 SV07, is scheduled to launch in mid-2024 on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. It’s a candidate to change into the primary nationwide safety payload to fly on ULA’s new Vulcan launch automobile.
Building of the primary eight GPS 3 satellites is roofed in a 2008 contract valued at $3.6 billion. The army ordered two further GPS 3-type satellites later. The primary GPS 3 satellite tv for pc launched in 2018, and the latest mission, SV05, launched in June 2021.
Navy officers had been unable to supply a precise value for the GPS 3 SV06 spacecraft, however the common value of every satellite tv for pc within the 2008 buy quantities to roughly $600 million in inflation-adjusted {dollars}.
The sequence of GPS 3 navigation satellites are designed for 15-year life spans, an enchancment over the seven-and-a-half yr and 12-year design lives of previous-generation GPS satellites. The GPS 3 satellites present 3 times higher accuracy and as much as eight occasions improved anti-jamming capabilities over early GPS spacecraft, in line with Lockheed Martin.
The GPS 3 satellites additionally introduce a brand new L-band civilian sign that’s suitable with different worldwide navigation satellite tv for pc networks, similar to Europe’s Galileo program. Combining indicators from GPS, Galileo, and different navigation satellites can enhance the precision of space-based place measurements.
The U.S. army makes use of GPS satellites for sensible bombs and different precision-guided munitions. Troops depend on the community, which requires a minimal of 24 satellites for world protection, to supply positioning information pole-to-pole.
Lockheed Martin received a follow-on contract from the army in 2018 to construct as much as 22 extra upgraded GPS 3F satellites. The House Pressure has positioned agency orders with Lockheed Martin for the primary 10 GPS 3F satellites, which is able to present the army with new capabilities similar to enhanced regional safety and even higher anti-jamming capabilities, an upgraded search and rescue payload, and a laser retroreflector array to assist present extra correct information on every spacecraft’s location in orbit, info that can end in extra exact place info for customers on the bottom.
L3Harris Applied sciences builds the navigation payloads for the GPS 3 satellites.
Civilians use the World Positioning System on their smartphones, and airliners make use of augmented GPS indicators for precision landings and in-flight navigation. Banks use the timing indicators from GPS satellites to time tag monetary transactions.
“GPS has change into part of our important nationwide infrastructure,” Trotter mentioned.
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