Latest news with #GPSIII
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (June 2)
A SpaceX rocket will take to the Florida sky Wednesday morning. As of Tuesday afternoon, SpaceX has officially confirmed the next rocket launch is set for 9:30 a.m. on May 28 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. Read the full story here. Launch recap: Scroll down to read updates from the SpaceX launch of Starlink satellites at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 28 from Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A. Read the full story here. After major setbacks during the past two Starship flights, SpaceX was counting on success this time as it launched the massive Starship on its ninth test flight from Texas — however the May 27 launch saw yet another dramatic ending. From launch to loss of the ship, high-quality footage was sent to the live coverage via Starlink. The world watched as once again things did not go as hoped for the massive launch system, which will eventually launch from Florida. The May 27 flight was aimed at testing much more than what transpired. Read the full story here. A SpaceX rocket took to the Florida sky during the bright, early hours of Wednesday, May 28. The Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron predicted an 85% chance of favorable weather during the early window, and just as predicted, skies were clear and a heat index of 91 degrees was felt. Read the full story here. Space Florida has authorized leasing 25 acres on northern Merritt Island for Project Beep, an undisclosed aerospace company that plans to build a future quarter-billion-dollar facility and create about 1,000 jobs just outside NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Little information has been publicly released about this confidential company. Read the full story here. Look for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to propel a GPS III satellite into orbit for the Space Force during an afternoon launch Friday, May 30, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Falcon 9 will lift off with the Lockheed Martin-designed and -built satellite at 1:37 p.m. for this GPS III-7 mission, SpaceX announced. The launch window will expire one minute later. Read the full story here. As Florida leaders call for moving the nation's space-agency headquarters to Brevard County, Space Florida is launching a study about how NASA and U.S. Space Force operations could be merged at Cape Canaveral. Space Florida President and CEO Robert Long on Wednesday told board members of the state aerospace agency that a 'unified model' would support the ongoing growth of commercial space operations and ensure government missions can be more efficient and sustainable. Read the full story here. Launch recap: Scroll down to review live updates from the Friday, May 30, liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral on the GPS III-7 mission for the Space Force. Read the full story here. Dodging raindrops, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bolted off the pad on a Space Force mission Friday, May 30, shortly after a wave of thunderstorms and showers soaked Cape Canaveral and surrounding areas. The rocket deployed a GPS III satellite into medium-Earth orbit after the 1:37 p.m. liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — where a special marine warning had advised boaters of steep waves, gusty winds and possible hail offshore. Read the full story here. Two veteran astronauts were inducted May 31 into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame — and one of them had to miss the induction ceremony as she's preparing to launch on yet another mission. Organized by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the annual ceremony was held under Space Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The new inductees are Bernard Harris and Peggy Whitson, bringing the total number of astronauts in the Hall of Fame to 111. Read the full story here. With the new NASA budget proposal that includes deep cuts heading to Congress and NASA still without a leader, a surprise twist came May 31: Jared Isaacman was being dropped as President Trump's choice to become the next NASA administrator. Isaacman's confirmation as the head of NASA had been expected Monday. But instead the White House announced Isaacman was no longer in the running. Trump said on Truth Social that he will propose a new nominee. Read the full story here. Scrub recap: Scroll down to read updates from the scrubbed SpaceX Starlink 12-19 mission, which was set to liftoff early June 2. The next launch attempt is no earlier than 12:42 a.m. on June 3. Read the full story here. For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week (June 2)
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Space Force demos rapid turnaround on latest GPS III launch
The Space Force successfully sent its latest GPS III satellite to orbit Friday, demonstrating the ability to prepare and launch a military spacecraft on condensed timelines. The satellite flew on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Base in Florida. GPS III, built by Lockheed Martin, is the latest version of the navigation and timing system and is designed to provide improved anti-jamming capabilities. It will broadcast additional military and civilian signals. Along with delivering more GPS capacity, the launch was the second in a series of Rapid Response Trailblazer missions the Space Force is running to test whether it can quickly launch high-value satellites in response to national security needs. The goal is to condense a process that can take up to two years down to a handful of months. The first mission, which flew in December, reduced the time between launch notification and lift off to around five months — and the May 30th mission shortened it even further, to around 90 days. 'What we're demonstrating here is that it is possible with our current vehicle systems that if there is a need to get something on orbit quickly, something that is unpredicted at the time we put it in our contract, we have the capacity, and we know what it would take in order to make that happen,' Mission Director Walt Lauderdale told reporters in a May 28 pre-launch briefing. The Space Force has shown through its Tactically Responsive Launch program that it can launch small payloads on commercial rockets on demand, but RRT is proving that capability on larger, more complex payloads. The service opted to conduct its first RRT missions with GPS III satellites for a few reasons. For starters, the military signal, M-Code, is in high demand from DOD users. In both cases, the spacecraft had been previously slated to fly on United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket, which until recently hadn't been certified to fly national security missions. Because GPS III satellites are qualified to fly on multiple vehicles, the Space Force was able to fairly easily swap the missions to a SpaceX rocket, allowing it to test the flexibility of both the launch firm and Lockheed as the satellite provider. According to Col. Andrew Menschner, commander of Mission Delta 31, the team has shared the importance of multi-vehicle qualification with Space Force leadership, and he expects more spacecraft will have that built-in flexibility in the future. The effort also benefitted from the fact there were multiple GPS III satellites in Lockheed's factory waiting for a ride, Menschner said in the same briefing. Using those spacecraft for a mission like this helped demonstrate the utility of having systems on standby, ready to launch when needed. 'We're trying to prove that we can quickly respond to an on-orbit failure of a vehicle, but we're also trying to show the best ways to be resilient now that we have the timelines of launch headed to much shorter durations,' Menschner said. 'One form of resilience is having a completed vehicle in the factory and ready to go to respond.' Lauderdale noted that while these missions have proven faster timelines are possible, the service may not opt to apply the concepts to all future GPS launches. Spacecraft readiness will more likely be the driver. 'I wouldn't expect it's going to become a regular cadence, but we are demonstrating what it would take in order to respond to something unexpected and how we can do that to support the warfighter,' he said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches GPS satellite for Space Force after rains, storms sweep past Cape Canaveral
Dodging raindrops, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bolted off the pad on a Space Force mission Friday, May 30, shortly after a wave of thunderstorms and showers soaked Cape Canaveral and surrounding areas. The rocket deployed a GPS III satellite into medium-Earth orbit after the 1:37 p.m. liftoff from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station — where a special marine warning had advised boaters of steep waves, gusty winds and possible hail offshore. During the SpaceX GPS III-7 launch webcast, Zachary Luppen, an avionics supply chain engineer, said the next-generation satellite will improve resistance to jamming and cyberattacks, boost military signal strength and add signals for civilian applications. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral "Billions of devices and systems around the world rely on the U.S. Space Force-provided GPS signals. Not only is it critical to national security technologies, but everything from navigation on smart phones and in cars, boats and aircraft to disaster response, transportation systems, Federal Aviation Administration operations and even ATMs and banking transactions. All of these depend on GPS," Luppen told launch viewers. "GPS III is the next generation of satellites required to maintain the resiliency of the GPS constellation and improve services to meet user demand," he said. On May 28, Department of Defense officials announced Lockheed Martin received a $510 million Space Force contract modification to design and build two future GPS III satellites. Work will be performed in Littleton, Colorado, with a November 2031 projected completion date. Prior to liftoff, odds of inclement weather remained a 50-50 coin flip past the point when SpaceX crews started fueling the Falcon 9 roughly 35 minutes before launch. Thunderstorms had lit up National Weather Service radar screens in angry-looking red along the northern portion of the Cape about 1½ hours before launch, and widespread rain fell across Launch Complex 40. Meteorologists issued a special marine warning for a north-south swath roughly ranging from Scottsmoor through Titusville to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Winds topping 34 knots, steep waves and pea-sized hail were possible within this warning zone, which swept offshore by 1:15 p.m. The Space Force mission marked the Falcon 9 first-stage booster's fourth flight, SpaceX reported. The booster — which previously launched CRS-32, NROL-69 and one Starlink mission — landed on the SpaceX drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean after stage separation. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch clocked in as the 46th orbital rocket launch thus far this year from KSC and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Next on the Eastern Range schedule, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 carrying Starlink broadband satellites during an early morning mission Monday, June 2, an FAA operations plan advisory indicates. Launch window: 12:57 a.m. to 5:28 a.m. That rocket will also lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX launches GPS III Space Force satellite to update constellation
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Insider
Lockheed Martin-built GPS III satellite launches into orbit
Lockheed Martin (LMT) announced the eighth GPS III space vehicle, designed and built by the company, successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, at 1:37 p.m. EDT. GPS III SV08 executed an accelerated launch call-up in just over three months. The company stated these GPS III satellites provide accurate and resilient positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities for civilian and military users. GPS III SV08 is now under operational control at Lockheed Martin's Denver Launch & Checkout Operations Center. Confident Investing Starts Here:
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches GPS III-7 mission from Florida: Watch replay
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Friday for the GPS III-7 mission to medium-Earth orbit from Florida. What we know The rocket lifted off around 1:30 p.m. from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the fourth time this rocket booster has been used. It previously launched the CRS-32, NROL-69, and a Starlink mission. After the rocket's first stage separated, it successfully landed on the droneship, A Shortfall of Gravitas, in the Atlantic Ocean. STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 35 ORLANDO: Download the FOX Local app for breaking news alerts, the latest news headlines Download the FOX 35 Storm Team Weather app for weather alerts & radar Sign up for FOX 35's daily newsletter for the latest morning headlines FOX Local:Stream FOX 35 newscasts, FOX 35 News+, Central Florida Eats on your smart TV The Source This story was written based on information shared by SpaceX.
