This was the first time SpaceX recovered a booster after a national security space launch mission.
WASHINGTON – A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a US Space Force GPS 3 satellite on June 30. The rocket took off at 4:10 pm east of Cape Canaveral, Florida,
About eight minutes after takeoff, SpaceX landed the all-new first stage of the Falcon 9 on the “Just Read the Instructions” drone parked in the Atlantic Ocean.
This was the 87th successful mission for Falcon 9 and the 49th first stage recovered by SpaceX. It also marked the first time the company recovered a booster after a national security space launch mission.
The $ 568 million payload, the third GPS 3 satellite manufactured by Lockheed Martin, separated from the second stage of the rocket approximately one hour and 29 minutes after liftoff. The satellite was deployed in a medium Earth orbit at an altitude of approximately 12,550 miles.
SpaceX’s first launch of a GPS 3 satellite was on December 23, 2018. After the mission on June 30, the company has a contract to launch three more GPS 3 satellites in the next two years.
Tonya Ladwig, vice president of the Navigation Systems Division at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said GPS 3 satellites provide three times greater accuracy and up to eight times more anti-interference power than the previous generation of satellites. It also adds a new L1C civil signal.
The new GPS 3 will join a constellation of 31 GPS satellites currently in operation. Each satellite circles the earth twice a day.
Lockheed Martin said the new satellite is responding to commands from program engineers at the launch and pay facility in Denver.
Ladwing said the liquid apogee engines on board the satellite will propel it into its operational orbit in the coming days. “Once it arrives, we will send the satellite commands to deploy its solar panels and antennas, and prepare the satellite for transfer to the Space Operations Command.”
