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.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.