A army satellite tv for pc ready to launch with ULA will now fly with SpaceX
For the second time in six months, SpaceX will deploy a US army satellite tv for pc that was sitting in storage, ready for a slot on United Launch Alliance’s launch schedule.
Area Techniques Command, which oversees the army’s launch program, introduced Monday that it’s reassigning the launch of a International Positioning System satellite tv for pc from ULA’s Vulcan rocket to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. This satellite tv for pc, designated GPS III SV-08 (Area Car-08), will be a part of the Area Drive’s fleet of navigation satellites beaming positioning and timing alerts for army and civilian customers all over the world.
The Area Drive booked the Vulcan rocket to launch this spacecraft in 2023, when ULA hoped to start flying army satellites on its new rocket by mid-2024. The Vulcan rocket is now scheduled to launch its first nationwide safety mission across the center of this yr, following the Area Drive’s certification of ULA’s new launcher final month.
The “launch automobile commerce” permits the Area Drive to launch the GPS III SV-08 satellite tv for pc from Cape Canaveral, Florida, as quickly as the tip of Could, in line with a press launch.
“Functionality sitting on the bottom”
With Vulcan now cleared to launch army missions, officers are hopeful ULA can ramp up the rocket’s flight cadence. Vulcan launched on two demonstration flights final yr, and ULA finally desires to launch Vulcan twice per thirty days. ULA engineers have their work minimize out for them. The corporate’s Vulcan backlog now stands at 89 missions, following the Area Drive’s announcement final week of 19 further launches awarded to ULA.
Final yr, the Pentagon’s chief acquisition official for house wrote a letter to ULA’s house owners—Boeing and Lockheed Martin—expressing concern about ULA’s capability to scale the manufacturing of the Vulcan rocket.
“Presently there’s army satellite tv for pc functionality sitting on the bottom because of Vulcan delays,” Frank Calvelli, the Pentagon’s chief of house acquisition, wrote within the letter.
Vulcan might lastly be on the cusp of delivering for the Area Drive, however there are a number of army payloads within the queue to launch on Vulcan earlier than GPS III SV-08, which was full and in storage at its Lockheed Martin manufacturing facility in Colorado.
Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel chief of launch execution, mentioned in a press release that the rocket swap showcases the Area Drive’s capability to launch in three months from call-up, in comparison with the standard planning cycle of two years. “It highlights one other occasion of the Area Drive’s capability to finish high-priority launches on a fast timescale, which demonstrates the aptitude to reply to emergent constellation wants as quickly as Area Car readiness permits,” Horne mentioned.
