CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The last in a series of satellites updating the nation’s Global Positioning System is on its way to orbit after blasting off Friday morning atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
The 19-story Atlas V thundered from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station into perfectly clear blue sky, lifting off at 8:38 a.m., with 860,000 pounds of thrust generated by its Russian-made RD-180 engine.
The early flight proceeded as planned through the first of two burns by the rocket’s Centaur upper stage, but the mission won’t be complete until the satellite called GPS IIF-12 is deployed nearly three-and-a-half hours after launch.
News 6 partner Florida Today reported that the mission marks the “end of an era,” according to the U.S. Air Force, which operates the 30-satellite GPS constellation used worldwide for precise navigation and timing information.
It’s the last of a dozen GPS “IIF” satellites built by Boeing, the first of which launched in 2010. Each is worth roughly $250 million.
Eight GPS satellites have now launched in just two years, a modernization campaign described as the most aggressive in two decades.
But the first satellite in the next generation, called GPS III and built by Lockheed Martin, won’t be ready to launch for more than a year.
Today's launch was the first of 2016 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which could host as many as 30 this year by ULA and SpaceX rockets.
Gusty winds looked like they might pose a problem early in the countdown, but they calmed as the 19-minute launch window arrived.
The mission was delayed two days to allow time to inspect electrical connectors on the Atlas booster.
ULA plans to launch again in just five days, with a Delta IV rocket carrying a National Reconnaissance Office mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
SpaceX could launch a commercial communications satellite from Cape Canaveral later this month.