The Air Force and its industry partners are ready to launch the second GPS III satellite Aug. 22 after a component issue related to the United Launch Alliance (ULA) launch vehicle forced a monthlong delay, officials said Aug. 20.
The launch of the GPS system dubbed “Magellan” was originally targeted for July 25, but was announced as delayed by ULA on July 17 (Defense Daily, July 17). But after the faulty component was identified, corrected and re-tested at a supplier’s facility, the mission is back on track to launch Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (AFSMC) and industry officials confirmed in a media call Tuesday.
The GPS III launch Thursday will mark AFSMC’s fourth launch since June 25, said Col. Robert Bongiovi, director of AFSMC’s launch systems enterprise directorate. It also marks the final launch of ULA’s Delta IV Medium rocket in its “single-stick” configuration (Defense Daily, March 21).
“It has been a workhorse for 28 successful launches, and we will continue our diligent mission assurance efforts as we progress to our target launch date,” Bongiovi said.
The GPS III generation of space vehicles, built by Lockheed Martin [LMT], includes signals that are three times more accurate and up to eight times more powerful than previous generations, said Lt. Col. Margaret Sullivan, GPS III Program Manager at AFSMC. They will also be more compatible with other global navigation satellite systems with a new civil signal, allowing users the ability to receive and use signals from other countries’ satellites simultaneously.
The new systems will also eventually provide a new military M-code capability to provide secure access to military signals and increased anti-jam resilience, said Johnathon Caldwell, vice president of navigation systems for Lockheed Martin.
The company is continuing work on a series of upgrades to GPS III systems that will allow the Air Force to control and operate the advanced satellites while it awaits delivery of the Next-Generation GPS III Operational Control Segment (OCX) in development by Raytheon [RTN]. The Air Force is currently operating Block 0 of OCX to launch the new GPS III satellites, and service officials told reporters last December that Block 1 is expected to be fielded by 2021 or 2022, over five years behind schedule (Defense Daily, Dec. 14, 2018).
The Air Force contracted Lockheed Martin in 2016 to build the OCX Contingency Operations (COps) update in the meantime. Caldwell confirmed Lockheed Martin has officially delivered COps to the Air Force and it is undergoing preparations for installation later this year.
“We’re looking forward to seeing GPS III satellites flying together as part of the full GPS constellation before the end of the year,” he said.
The M-Code Early Use upgrade is expected to be delivered in 2020, he added. “We’re making excellent progress. … We’re through software development and into our final testing on the code and looking forward to getting it through its qualification testing and deliver to the Air Force early next year.” The fielding of M-code Early Use will be determined between AFSMC and the 2nd Space Operations Squadron for when it’s “operationally a good time for them to put it on the system.”
The first GPS III system, dubbed “Vespucci,” launched in December 2018 aboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. Lockheed Martin is on contract to build 32 GPS III and GPS III Follow-On satellites for the Air Force. Thirty-one GPS satellites are currently operational.
Space Vehicle (SV) 01 successfully completed its on-orbit checkout and test phase last month, Sullivan said on the media call. “The spacecraft continues to demonstrate outstanding performance as it awaits its transition to operation later this year,” she said.
The next phase of operational testing on SV-01 will begin later this year, Caldwell said. Lockheed Martin is continuing production on the next GPS III systems, with SV-03 declared ready for launch and targeting a January 2020 launch window, he added. The fourth through eighth satellites are currently working their way through production at the company’s Denver facility.
“We completed the manufacturing on the [fourth] vehicle and are warping up final data reviews and preparing to formally go through the process with the Air Force to be declared for launch later this year,” Caldwell said.
Meanwhile, work continues on the Air Force’s GPS III Follow-On program, which the Air Force contracted to Lockheed Martin in 2018 under a $1.4 billion award to build the first two follow-on satellites, SV-11 and SV-12 (Defense Daily, Sept. 26, 2018). Caldwell said the company is on track to complete the navigation payload’s critical design review (CDR) this fall, with the integrated space vehicle CDR expected in early 2020.