By 50th Space Wing Public Affairs, Schriever Air Force Base
Throughout the years, GPS has achieved historic milestones and garnered recognition for its contributions to the betterment of humanity.
2015 was no different.
Photo: 50th Space Wing Public Affairs, Schriever Air Force Base
GPS, operated by the dedicated men and women of the 2nd and 19th Space Operations Squadrons at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, is also the world’s largest military satellite constellation. Uses of GPS include precise timing for financial transactions, search and rescue, communications, farming, recreation and both military and commercial aviation.
The 2 and 19 SOPS, referred to as Team Black Jack, hosted GPS Week Feb. 15-20 to honor their heritage and interact directly with the Colorado Springs community. The week included a community geo-caching event, GPS/base tours for dozens of middle and high school students, 2 SOPS educational outreach events at local schools and culminated with a GPS heritage celebration.
“We wanted to touch the different facets of our community and that’s why we planned these events,” said Tech. Sgt. Abifarin Scott, 2 SOPS GPS maintenance flight chief.
GPS received historic recognition from the city of Colorado Springs a few months later.
Colorado Springs City Council members presented a proclamation declaring July 17, 2015, GPS Day during a ceremony July 15.
“It’s a great time, a significant milestone that [GPS] has been active this long,” said Andy Pico, Colorado Springs City Council member. “GPS has grown to be such a tremendous part of everybody’s lives, it runs everything…it’s so much into the fabric of everybody’s life.”
The proclamation came as the Air Force celebrated GPS’s 20 years of full operational capability, confirmed July 17, 1995. During the last 20 years, GPS has become an integral part of technology that affects the lives of billions of people around the world.
The men and women of GPS stayed busy supporting many operations throughout the year.
GPS IIF-10. (Photo: ULA)
The Air Force and the 45th Space Wing supported the successful launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket that roared to life March 25, carrying the Air Force’s ninth Block IIF-09 navigation satellite for the GPS.
2 and 19 SOPS accepted satellite control authority of GPS IIF-9 Satellite Vehicle Number-71 April 3.
2 SOPS successfully completed a transfer operation of GPS satellite control authority to the Alternate Master Control Site at a backup location on June 6.
2 and 19 SOPS accepted command and control of the 10th GPS Block IIF satellite July 24.
After 15 years of launch operations for the GPS, 19 SOPS completed their 26th launch as a squadron Oct. 31, performing checkout operations on the 11th GPS IIF satellite.
On Nov. 6, Team Black Jack accepted SCA just six days after the Halloween launch of satellite vehicle number-73 – in record time. Members of Team Black Jack prepped for the launch and subsequent SCA acceptance of SVN-73 for approximately three months.
The Command’s GPS operations were showcased in multiple venues this year, engaging with communities and making the mission known all over the world.
CBS featured the 50th Space Wing and GPS on an episode of 60 Minutes, and BLUE, the Air Force’s flagship TV show, also featured GPS — both of which displayed the capabilities it offers to humanity.
Beyond its essential capability for the military, GPS is a worldwide utility that provides the highest accuracy data available to people all around the world and enables such vital activities as weather forecasting, transportation, global commerce and farming/agriculture.
“2 SOPS’s continuing objective is to ensure GPS remains the gold standard for global space-based navigation and timing by providing highly reliable and accurate GPS signals to users around the world,” said Lt. Col. Todd Benson, 2 SOPS Commander. “We look forward to continuing to provide our mission partners and global users with the most accurate position, navigation and timing signal available in the history of GPS.”
Are you using a legacy-model PNT (position, navigation and timing) receiver or a smart PNT receiver, and why does it matter? Don’t have a clue? Read on! Hint — L2C and CNAV (civilian navigation message format) are the major reason it matters. Yes, it’s all because of L2C, the controversial GPS civilian signal that seems to always be in the news and just keeps getting better the more we learn about it.
A couple of weeks ago, Alan Cameron, our esteemed editor in chief — penned a follow-on editorial comprised of excerpts from techies, subject-matter experts and editors, including yours truly, exchanging opinions about the flexibility, sustainability and capability of the GPS L2C signal and all that signal enables.
I won’t bother to go into the details or history of the L2C signal here, as I did that in excruciating detail 30 months ago. However, let’s consider L2C 30 months on and determine if the landscape has changed.
What is L2C?
According to the official U.S. government PNT website, “L2C is the second civilian GPS signal, designed specifically to meet commercial needs.” As it turns out, the military needs L2C as much as the civilian world, but that is a story for another time. When combined with L1 C/A (coarse acquisition signal) in a dual-frequency GNSS receiver, L2C enables ionospheric corrections, a technique that boosts accuracy. Civilians with dual-frequency GPS receivers typically enjoy the same or better accuracy as the military.
For professional and high-precision users with existing dual-frequency receivers, L2C delivers faster signal acquisition, enhanced reliability and greater operating range. L2C broadcasts at a higher effective power than the legacy L1 C/A signal, making it more jam and interference resistant, plus it’s easier to receive signals under trees and indoors. The U.S. Commerce Department estimates L2C will generate about $6 billion in economic productivity benefits through the year 2030. Considering there are more than four billion GPS users around the world today, the DOC economic benefits number seems rather low.
L2C Status
The first GPS IIR-M (R= Replenishment, M= Modernized with M-code and L2C) satellite featuring L2C launched on Sept. 26, 2005, and is still operational today. Every GPS satellite fielded since then (18 SVs, including SVN 49) has included an L2C transmitter. This equates to 16 operational L2C satellites on orbit and transmitting, with GPS IIF-10 being number 17 when it is fully commissioned. With 17 SVs (GPS satellite vehicles) on orbit, the L2C system is officially near Initial Operating Capability (IOC). With the requisite ground system upgrades, which are in the works, this means that on any given day most users will have at least one or more L2C signals in view. You can be sure manufacturers will be quick to take advantage of the geometry.
LMCO GPS IIRM Satellite Vehicle On Orbit. (Artist’s rendering courtesy of Lockheed Martin)
Legal Caveats
“In April 2014, the U.S. Air Force began broadcasting civil navigation (CNAV) messages on the L2C and L5C signals. Prior to that time, L2C and L5C provided a default message or Message Type Zero, containing no data. Adding additional CNAV message types required upgrades to the GPS control segment. On Dec. 31, 2014, the Air Force began transmitting CNAV uploads on a daily basis. L2C should continue to be considered pre-operational and should be employed at the user’s own risk.”
Now the lawyers are happy.
So What?
What does this mean for the average user? You might be surprised at the answer. Depending on how technical you are and exactly how you use GPS, it could mean that all your “legacy” GPS receivers are about to become obsolete. Or, depending on the company that builds your receivers and the amount of foresight they built in, it could just mean a few firmware upgrades and new applications.
Regardless, with the full implementation of L2C GPS signals and navigation messages, GPS will never be the same again. This is not to say your legacy receiver will not work just as efficiently as it does today, and in fact you will probably be able to use it quite effectively for years. But it will not be able to take full advantage of all the capabilities L2C enables without an upgrade, if indeed it is upgradeable.
Legacy versus Smart
No matter how much or how little you paid for your GPS/GNSS/PNT receiver, it is essentially — except for a few notable exceptions — a legacy receiver. For example Trimble is ahead of the game as they began producing L2C capable receivers as early as 2003 and are just waiting for the additional L2C messages to be defined. Again, those receivers that are not L2C-ready or capable are what I will classify as a legacy receiver, simply because of all the future capabilities that are missing. Your current PNT receiver may have the potential to be a smart receiver — it may have the technical capability to process far more than it does today. But, unfortunately, essentially almost every receiver, again with a few exceptions, on the market today falls into the “legacy ” category.
Is My Legacy Device Considered Obsolete?
Now that I have your attention and have probably riled more than a few GPS device manufacturers, please allow me to explain. In the past, your GNSS/PNT device (for brevity’s sake, I will default to PNT for the rest of the column) has basically performed a simple function. It displayed your position, and perhaps maps and other ancillary data (targets or destinations) after it received, decoded, verified and applied timing signals and a very small number of navigation messages.
It accomplished this feat typically from a cold start in under 120 seconds. Maybe much less. Recently, I was privileged to view a demonstration of a receiver from a major manufacturer that performed a warm restart in less-than-ideal conditions and displayed a useful position in 1/20th of a second. As amazing as that may be, it is still today classified as a legacy receiver. It accomplished its task; it supplied a useful position both in human and machine language that could be utilized by both. In the past, this was the task your receiver accomplished routinely. With the full implementation of L2C, all that changes and changes drastically. I call it a revolution for PNT, but alas I am frequently given to hyperbole. However, give me a moment and see if you don’t agree.
I was attracted to a Wall Street Journal headline recently by a company that I know well, since they have an abundance of well-known and multi-talented former military leaders. That company, Accenture, puts it this way: “Change is good. Transformation is even better.” That is exactly where I believe we stand today with L2C. It is a game changer.
For example, just this week in the WSJ, which I read cover to cover six days a week, I saw stories about Audi vehicles driving autonomously from coast to coast, over 3,000 miles without driver intervention. Contrary to many manufacturers, Audi is quick to credit GPS with a large portion of the proprietary Audi (VW) technology and the capability it enables. There was a story about commercial vehicles, over-the-road diesel trucks that may have even more capabilities than the Audi. Again, with GPS as the prime contributor. The same WSJ story mentioned that, “Some of the features being added to trucks are similar to those in cars, but generally the move to autonomy in commercial and industrial vehicles is far ahead of the autonomous systems offered on most passenger vehicles. Already, mining vehicles and military forklifts are operated without drivers.”
Amazingly, these capabilities depend greatly on GPS, but exist without the full implementation of the revolution that L2C, CNAV and multiple nav messages will bring.
L2C CNAV Message Structure.
L2C Ready
I have over the past year seen advertisements for PNT devices that proclaim they are L2C ready. I beg to differ, but only because my definition of L2C ready probably varies greatly from that of the devices’ marketing department. Beyond its signal structure, L2C has a new messaging capability.
As stated earlier, the L2C signal is heads and shoulders above most other GNSS signals in strength, code structure and security. L2C delivers faster signal acquisition, enhanced reliability, and greater operating range. L2C broadcasts at a higher effective power than the legacy L1 C/A signal, making it interference and jam resistant and easier to receive under trees and indoors. These attributes make it a great signal and when you consider the carrier-phase and RTK (real time kinematic) capabilities, which really are real-time today. It is a very appealing signal indeed.
For precision and timing users, the carrier phase of the L2C signal, non-coded carrier, is 1,000 times more stable than the fully coded L2C signal. The L2C carrier-phase stability will remain unchanged until the semi-codeless transition date of Dec. 31, 2024, per the FRP or Federal Radio Navigation Plan of 2014. Then officially all bets are off, but who knows? That date could be extended.
However, the real and future strength of the L2C signal structure is hiding in one or more (accurately 255 more, for a total of 256) messages that can be utilized in a myriad of ways and applications. These are messages, nav-messages if you will, that your new or updated PNT device will be able to utilize for who knows how many functions. Just use your imagination. Here are some ideas I have for using the additional L2C messaging capability.
Send 250+ other navigation messages, to be defined.
Send continuous atmospheric corrections (such as ionospheric) for each two degrees of longitude around the globe or in one degree increments if you consider land mass applications only.
John Deere and Trimble as the leading commercial and civil providers of navigation data could appropriate a small fragment of the messages for their global navigation and timing corrections to their agricultural and precision users/customers around the globe.
Companies or governments could send nominal navigation or even text-based navigation-related messages to users anywhere an L2C signal can be received.
Companies could shut down and render useless receivers from users that have not paid their bills or were abusing the system.
Companies could send small firmware updates or notices of larger updates directly to users. Data could include active hyperlinks.
Precision, scientific and premium users might have the capability to receive constant correction updates that make their PNT receiver a centimeter or potentially a millimeter level device.
Receivers with communications — four billion plus smartphones and other devices with PNT capabilities and built-in communications — could become sensors capable of being sampled at will. These devices have the potential to be considered remote monitoring stations both for PNT and communications purposes. They could report both communications and PNT jamming or interference. They could also help track intentional jammers.
If you think about it hard enough, you will see that this modest list of capabilities with the proper security either make spoofing an impossibility or without proper security a malicious nightmare.
I hope by now you catch my drift and have come up with some ideas of your own concerning how the additional 250+ L2C messages could be utilized. We’re unsure how many messages will actually be available or how the messages will be used. The government will, out of operational necessity, require a small number, so right now your guess is as good as mine.
Keep in mind that L5C and M-code will have the same capabilities on differing frequencies, and different governing bodies will decide how the signals and 750-plus multiple-messaging capabilities are allocated and utilized. That is all hopefully in the near future. How that process unfolds, technically and operationally, will have a great deal to do with how successful and ubiquitous L2C becomes. The process alone will undoubtedly spawn thousands of articles; however, right now we are primarily discussing the necessity for smart receivers to fully utilize the additional L2C messages. For along with all the potential capabilities comes a processing and communications tail that does not exist today, except in a few instances that we can’t go into in this venue.
Relative
This is probably a good time to further qualify what I mean by legacy versus smart receivers. Were the appellation “legacy” not already in our vernacular concerning today’s highly functioning devices, it would not be one I would have chosen. However, it is and we are stuck with it. Consider that there are static high-end (read premium quality) single GNSS receivers that “see” more than 50-60 separate GNSS satellite vehicles and processes more than 150 GNSS signals. This does not take into consideration all the augmented and companion signals some of these devices are capable of processing. Many of these devices are very difficult to jam and literally cannot be spoofed, and still today they are legacy receivers in relationship to L2C capabilities.
However, I am told such high-end receivers are absolutely L2C ready, which may mean the additional L2C messages are ready to be processed and applied, received or rejected, whenever they are properly and officially defined. This brings us to the future definition or next generation smart L2C receiver.
Smart L2C PNT Receiver
For the first time a smart PNT L2C capable receiver will have the ability to:
Select between GPS only, GPS + GLONASS, or full GNSS mode with ancillary corrections such as WAAS and EGNOS, and work with, process or reject messages, making a decision about some or all the signals it has in view. While there are receivers that accomplish some of these functions today, they do not typically have the option of accepting or rejecting a GPS navigation message if it is properly formatted and verified. L2C smart receivers will — indeed must — at a minimum possess and correctly utilize that capability.
Alert users concerning new navigation message(s) and determine automatically or with user input whether the navigation message should be applied immediately, in the near future, put on hold or totally rejected.
Alert users to the effect that applying new or multiple navigation messages will have on the current PNT display and possibly the current mission or operation. For example, if you are a precision user, think millimeters for level of accuracy, utilizing PNT to measure tectonic plate movement — you are very interested in relative displacement over time and you may have no desire to apply a multiple nanosecond correction that could move your current measured position several inches or feet. If you are a geocacher, you do not want the coordinates of your latest buried treasure to dynamically change.
Determine if the latest valid navigation message(s) apply to your geographic area or, for mobile receivers, your destination, and what effect incorporating the messages will have on your displayed position or ETA.
Display a text-based navigation message if it is addressed to your device.
Require password(s) for certain actions — be they sensitive, proprietary, classified or of a “cannot undo” nature. Passwords could also be required in the message format before it could be unlocked and applied.
Determine and alert users if multiple navigation or device-control messages conflict with organizational or user-defined parameters.
Alert users to malicious messages or spoofing attempts.
Alert users to GNSS assets that are no longer available or go offline, such as during the two total GLONASS constellation shutdowns when GLONASS signals were not available for several hours. In the case of Apple iPhones, the GLONASS constellation-wide shutdown meant these devices went from multiple GNSS devices to “GPS plus PNT augmentation (WAAS) and other onboard sensors” devices. This is something many users may not care about, but is definitely worth a user-defined parameter for a warning message.
The ability to permanently reject a certain type of message by type, source, timeframe, etc.
By now, I hope you see the trend. You can probably think of many more possibilities for future GNSS or PNT receivers and the necessity for them to be loaded with computing and communications capabilities, especially where L2C is concerned — indeed, where all the CNAV signals and messages are concerned.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is L2C is a potentially revolutionary signal for GPS/PNT; it opens incredible opportunities for entrepreneurs, manufacturers and users at a minimum. We now all have some hard and important questions to consider before we purchase our next-generation PNT device or upgrade our legacy device.
Until next time, happy navigating, and I hope to see everyone at ION GNSS+ in September in Tampa, Fla. Remember, GPS is brought to you courtesy of the United States Air Force.
In a late June filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Lightsquared asked the agency to reassign its spectrum licenses — which were at the root of a prolonged dispute in 2010 and 2011, and have never been fully utilized — to a new licensee that would be wholly owned by a new company, New LightSquared. This is part of LightSquared’s efforts to re-emerge from bankruptcy.
LightSquared wants to resume its own interference testing scheme, floated in 2011 after an independent, collaborative effort found ample LightSquared interference with GPS. The company has contracted with Roberson and Associates, a technology consulting firm, to develop its interference study.
LightSquared is being represented before the FCC by Reed Hundt, a former FCC chairman who served from 1993 to 1997.
LightSquared listed 28 different GPS receivers and related devices that it wants to test for interference with its terrestrial mobile broadband service. The devices include certified and non-certified aviation receivers and avionics equipment, general location, cell phones and 13 different high-precision clocks and receivers.
Hundt specificaly identifed three companies — Trimble, Garmin, and John Deere — that he wants to come forward and provide proprietary technical and business information “in confidence” to tester Roberson. In statements to the FCC, Hundt twice used the phrase “speak now or forever hold your peace.”
In March of this year, LightSquared obtained U.S. court permission to exit bankruptcy protection, which it entered in 2012. At that time, the FCC had concluded, after lengthy testing, hearings, charges and countercharges, that the wireless broadband service proposed by LightSquared would interfere with GPS signals and associated positioning, navigation, and timing.
New LightSquared reportedly has $1.25 billion in operating funds to help “make full use of its spectrum to provide existing and innovative services.”
In a recent trial involving the assets of the bankrupt company, the value of its spectrum bands was estimated at possibly $4.5 billion or higher.
GPS Industry Response. The GPS Innovation Alliance responded in early July to media reports on LightSquared’s position regarding the testing of the compatibility of terrestrial broadband and GPS.
Following is the GPS Innovation Alliance’s response:
“The GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) supports a consensus-driven process, including all government and non-government stakeholders, to clearly identify and address remaining technical issues raised by LightSquared proposals to repurpose mobile satellite spectrum for terrestrial broadband use.
“The technical challenges posed by these proposals are formidable, as evidenced by the conclusions of multiple U.S. government entities. Specifically, the U.S. Departments of Defense and Transportation and the NTIA have all found in the last several years that LightSquared’s proposals have significant potential to interfere with GPS.
“Contrary to LightSquared’s recent suggestions, this is not simply a private matter between three GPS companies and LightSquared, but is important to all GPS users who rely on this critical technology every day. The Department of Transportation has sponsored an ongoing effort to assess adjacent band issues, and the GPS industry is actively engaged with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Department of Transportation (DOT) and other government stakeholders to drive consensus around next steps.
“While we welcome the participation of LightSquared consultants, any further analysis of the technical issues should be informed by input from all of the relevant stakeholders, rather than the one-off efforts of an interested party.”
Tenth GPS Block II Follow-On Satellite Rises Above
This one’s in orbit now. Photo shows the nose cone containing GPS IIF-10 being lowered into position atop the launch vehicle, inside the rocket gantry at Cape Canaveral.
The tenth GPS IIF satellite lifted off from the Space Launch Complex (SLC)-41 at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on schedule at 11:36 local time (15:36 UTC) — at the start of a nineteen-minute window.
Later that same day, United Launch Alliance (ULA) officials declared the launch mission a success. The Centaur upper stage completed its second burn and released the GPS IIF-10 satellite into the navigation network to complete the launch of the Atlas 5 rocket.
This is the second of three GPS constellation replenishment flights planned in 2015. The first launch, of GPS IIF-9 using a Delta IV rocket, occurred on March 25. A third launch, of GPS IIF-11 using an Atlas rocket, is scheduled for Sept. 22. The launch of GPS IIF-12 is scheduled for Jan. 26, 2016.
The Boeing-built GPS IIF-10 is one of the next-generation GPS satellites, incorporating various improvements to provide greater accuracy, increased signals, and enhanced performance for users. GPS IIF-10 was the 70th spacecraft to be launched as part of the GPS constellation and the tenth in the Block IIF series that began launching in May 2010.
GPS IIF-10 marks the 55th Atlas V launch since the vehicle’s inaugural launch in 2002 and the 27th flight of the 401 configuration. Every operational GPS mission has launched on a United Launch Alliance or heritage rocket. While the government has certified ULA competitor SpaceX for GPS III launches, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded June 29, two minutes after launch of an International Space Station resupply mission.
The Boeing-built GPS IIF satellites provide improved signals to support both the warfighter and the growing civilian needs of the global economy, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement. The GPS IIF satellites will provide improved accuracy through advanced atomic clocks, a longer design life than previous GPS satellites, and a new operational third civil signal (L5) that benefits commercial aviation and safety-of-life applications. It will also continue to deploy the modernized capabilities that began with the GPS IIR satellites, including a more robust military signal.
After the first main engine cut-off, the GPS IIF-10 mission entered a three-hour coast phase. (Courtesy: ULA)
UPDATE (July 15, 4 p.m. ET): United Launch Alliance (ULA) officials have declared the launch mission a success. The Centaur upper stage completed its second burn and released the GPS IIF-10 satellite into the navigation network to complete today’s launch of the Atlas 5 rocket.
“Congratulations to the U.S Air Force and the entire mission team on today’s successful launch of the 10th GPS IIF satellite! In just a few days, on July 17, the Global Positioning System will celebrate the 20th anniversary of GPS achieving fully operational status,” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs. “ULA is very proud to play a role in delivering these satellites to orbit, with Atlas and Delta rockets having launched all 58 operational GPS satellites.”
“Today’s successful launch is a testament to the outstanding teamwork of government and industry partners’ commitment to mission success. The GPS IIF satellites are critical for GPS constellation global service for years to come,” said Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, Space and Missile Systems Center commander. “Thanks to the men and women of SMC, the 45th, 50th, 310th Space Wings, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, The Aerospace Corporation, the GPS IIF, and the Atlas V launch teams, we are sustaining and modernizing the world’s greatest space-based, precise positioning, navigation and timing service.”
The tenth GPS IIF satellite lifted off from the Space Launch Complex (SLC)-41 at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on schedule at 11:36 local time (15:36 UTC) on July 15, at the start of a nineteen-minute launch window.
This is the second of three GPS constellation replenishment flights planned in 2015. The first launch, of GPS IIF-9 using a Delta IV rocket, occurred on March 25. A third launch, of GPS IIF-11 using an Atlas rocket, is scheduled for Sept. 22. The launch of GPS IIF-12 is scheduled for Jan. 26, 2016.
The Boeing-built GPS IIF-10 is one of the next-generation GPS satellites, incorporating various improvements to provide greater accuracy, increased signals, and enhanced performance for users. GPS IIF-10 was the 70th spacecraft to be launched as part of the GPS constellation and the tenth in the Block IIF series that began launching in May 2010.
GPS IIF-10 marks the 55th Atlas V launch since the vehicle’s inaugural launch in 2002 and the 27th flight of the 401 configuration. Every operational GPS mission has launched on a United Launch Alliance or heritage rocket. While the government has certified ULA competitor SpaceX for GPS III launches, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded June 29, two minutes after launch of an International Space Station resupply mission.
The Boeing-built GPS IIF satellites provide improved signals to support both the warfighter and the growing civilian needs of the global economy, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement. The GPS IIF satellites will provide improved accuracy through advanced atomic clocks, a longer design life than previous GPS satellites, and a new operational third civil signal (L5) that benefits commercial aviation and safety-of-life applications. It will also continue to deploy the modernized capabilities that began with the GPS IIR satellites, including a more robust military signal.
United Launch Alliance crews on July 7 placed the next GPS satellite on top of an Atlas V rocket for blastoff later this month, reports SpaceFlight Now.
Liftoff for the GPS IIF-10 satellite will take place July 15, between 11:36 and 11:55 a.m. EDT, from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-41 at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
This is the second of three GPS constellation replenishment flights planned in 2015. The first launch, of GPS IIF-9 using a Delta IV rocket, occurred on March 25. A third launch, of GPS IIF-11 using an Atlas rocket, is scheduled for Sept. 22. The launch of GPS IIF-12 is scheduled for Jan. 26, 2016.
The Boeing-built GPS IIF-10 is one of the next-generation GPS satellites, incorporating various improvements to provide greater accuracy, increased signals, and enhanced performance for users.
GPS IIF-10 marks the 55th Atlas V launch since the vehicle’s inaugural launch in 2002 and the 27th flight of the 401 configuration. Every operational GPS mission has launched on a United Launch Alliance or heritage rocket. While the government has certified ULA competitor SpaceX for GPS III launches, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded June 29, two minutes after launch of an International Space Station resupply mission.
