Update Jan. 26, 12 p.m. EST (1700 UTC): SpaceX delayed the mission roughly 24 hours.
The U.S. Space Force is set to send its ninth third-generation Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite into medium Earth orbit on Tuesday night. The satellite will ride to space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after the government moved the spacecraft from a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket.
The mission, named GPS 3-9, will see the GPS 3 Space Vehicle 09 (SV09) payload deploy from the rocket’s upper stage nearly 1.5 hours after liftoff. This latest positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) satellite is equipped with what the Space Force calls M-Code technology, which it calls critical to “provide the warfighter with a significantly more accurate and jam-resistant capability.”
Two field commands are overseeing the mission: the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) and Combat Forces Command (CFC). SSC’s System Delta 80 (SYD 80) helps manage the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, the procurement process for launch vehicles; and CFC’s Mission Delta 31 is responsible for pre-launch satellite processing alongside Lockheed Martin, the satellite’s manufacturer.
Departure from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 11:38 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 27 (0438 UTC on Jan. 28). The launch was delayed a day from Jan. 25, with SpaceX stating in a tweet that it was “keeping an eye on recovery weather.” The mission was delayed again from Monday night to Tuesday with the 45th Weather Squadron forecasting just a 40 percent chance for acceptable weather on Monday.
Spaceflight Now will have live coverage beginning about an hour prior to liftoff.
For Tuesday’s launch opportunity, the 45th Weather Squadron forecast a 95 percent chance for favorable weather during the 15-minute launch window. Meteorologists are tracking the major winter storm moving across parts of the country, which will bring a “strong cold front” to Florida, expected to clear out well in advance of Tuesday’s launch window.
“On Tuesday, winds at both the launch site and recovery area will decrease as high pressure pushes into the Southeast, relaxing the pressure gradient,” launch weather officers wrote. “This will allow for very favorable launch conditions, with the only concern being the negligible risk of a Cumulus Cloud Rule violation.”
SpaceX will launch this mission using the Falcon 9 first stage booster B1096. This will be its fifth flight after previously launching NASA’s IMAP ride share, NROL-77, Kuiper Falcon 01 (KF-01) and the Starlink 6-87 missions.
A little more than 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1096 is set to land on the drone ship, ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas,’ positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. If successful, this will be the 141st landing on that vessel and the 564th booster landing for SpaceX to date.
It will be SpaceX’s second national security flight of the year, after launching the NROL-105 mission on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office on Jan. 16.
Spacecraft shuffle
The GPS 3-9 mission marks the third time that the Space Force opted to move one of these satellites from a Vulcan rocket to a Falcon 9. Both ULA and SpaceX were awarded a series of GPS missions as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract, which was awarded to the two companies for $4.5 billion and $4 billion respectively.
By the time all missions were assigned, ULA was tasked with the launches of the GPS 3-7, GPS 3-8 and GPS 3-9 missions. SpaceX meanwhile was awarded the GPS 3-10 and GPS 3F-1, the latter of which is the first launch of a GPS 3 Follow-on satellite.
Things shifted for the first time when the Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC) made the decision to pull forward the launch of the GPS 3 SV07 satellite and launched it on a Falcon 9 rocket under the mission name Rapid Response Trailerblazer (aka GPS 3-10) in December 2024. In exchange, ULA was tasked with the launch of the GPS 3 SV10 spacecraft on Vulcan.
Another swap happened last year when SpaceX was called to launch the GPS 3-7 mission, which flew the GPS 3 SV08 spacecraft in May 2025. In exchange, ULA was given the GPS 3F-1 mission, which will carry the GPS 3F SV11 spacecraft.
According to SSC’s System Delta 80, based at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, here’s the breakdown of the currently assigned GPS satellites:
- GPS 3- 9 (SV09) – SpaceX Falcon 9
- GPS 3-8 (SV10) – ULA Vulcan
- GPS 3F-1 (SV11) – ULA Vulcan
- GPS 3F-2 (SV12) – ULA Vulcan
- GPS 3F-3 (SV13) – ULA Vulcan
“For this launch, we traded a GPS 3 mission from a Vulcan to a Falcon 9, then exchanged a later GPS 3F mission from a Falcon Heavy to a Vulcan,” said USSF Col. Ryan Hiserote, SYD 80 Commander and NSSL program manager. “Our commitment to keeping things flexible – programmatically and contractually – means that we can pivot when necessary to changing circumstances.
“We have a proven ability to adapt the launch manifest to complex and dynamic factors and are continuing to shorten our timelines for delivering critical capabilities to warfighters.”
When the SV07 satellite was launched in December 2024, Vulcan was a couple of months past its second flight on its path towards becoming certified to launch national security payloads. That government certification didn’t come until March 2025, just a couple months before the SV08 launch in May.
Spaceflight Now asked SSC whether the decision to launch SV09 on a Falcon 9 rocket was done to “minimize the impact of Vulcan delays,” as was stated following the launch of SV07. A spokesperson for SLD 80 said the decision was made in order to get the GPS capability on orbit faster.
“Our capability to adapt the manifest is a critical component that keeps us flexible to the complex and dynamic factors of launch operations and warfighter priorities,” an SYD 80 spokesperson said. “In this case, the Vulcan manifest was heavily congested, and the collaboration and partnership with our launch service providers allowed us to find a path forward that balanced contracted mission assignments against the priority to bolster critical capabilities for the Joint Force.”
During a media roundtable with members of SSC on Jan. 22, Col. Eric Zarybnisky, the program executive officer of SSC’s Assured Access to Space (AATS), said — without going into detail — that there are some consequences for needing to switch launch vehicles multiple times.
“There are delay penalties that are associated with the contract,” Zarybnisky said.
ULA’s next announced launch is the flight of the USSF-87 mission — unrelated to the GPS constellation — which is scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 2. On Jan. 6, 2026, the Space Force published photos of the SV10 spacecraft being loaded onto a transport plane at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado to be flown to Florida for prelaunch processing, though a launch date hasn’t been announced.
As is the case with all GPS satellites, SV09 is named for an explorer who contributed to the fabric of the country. This spacecraft is named for Col. Ellison Onizuka, a U.S. Air Force test pilot and NASA astronaut, who successfully flew onboard space shuttle Discovery on STS 51-C and perished as a member of the STS-51-L mission in the shuttle Challenger disaster, 40 years ago this week.