The Air Force’s first GPS III satellite has been scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on Dec. 18, the service’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) said Monday.

The launch was previously scheduled for Dec. 15, but was pushed back to accommodate a NASA resupply mission to the International Space Station on Dec. 4, according to an emailed statement from the center.

The GPS III program is a platform that could use improved acquisition. Photo: Lockheed Martin.
The GPS III program is a platform that could use improved acquisition. Photo: Lockheed Martin.

The Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built satellite will be carried by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The system, dubbed “Vespucci” in honor of the Italian explorer Americo Vespucci, was delivered to Cape Canaveral this past August via a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.

The upcoming launch will mark the start of a “brand new” era for GPS satellites, said Air Force Col. Steven Whitney, GPS directorate director at the SMC in an August release. “It is the first of our new GPS III satellites, first to integrate with a SpaceX rocket, first to interact with elements of GPS’ Next-Generation Operational Control System (OCX) Block O, and first to have spacecraft acquisition and on-orbit checkout from Lockheed Martin facilities,” he said.

The second GPS III satellite was declared “available for launch” by the Air Force in August, and is scheduled to launch in 2019. GPS III space vehicle (SV) 03 and SV04 are fully assembled and in environmental testing, while the fifth system has recently begun system testing, according to Lockheed Martin.

Harris Corp. [HRS] announced Nov. 1 that it had delivered the payload for SV06 to Lockheed Martin. Harris has supplied the payload for all of the GPS III systems and will provide an enhanced navigational payload for the Air Force’s GPS III Follow On (GPS IIIF) program (Defense Daily, Nov. 1). The seventh and eighth GPS III satellites are in stages of build up, said Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Eschenfelder in an email Nov. 20.

The service in September selected Lockheed Martin to build up to 22 additional GPS IIIF satellites, and awarded the company a $1.3 billion contract for the first two systems (Defense Daily, Sept. 26).