USSF field commands successfully launch GPS III

U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command and Space Operations Command executed an accelerated timeline to meet a specific warfighter need through a Rapid Response Trailblazer launch. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched this National Security Space Launch mission with a GPS III Space Vehicle aboard, named SV-07, Dec. 16, from Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

The mission successfully achieved a complex effort across multiple Space Force organizations to pull an existing GPS III satellite from storage, accelerate integration and launch vehicle readiness, and rapidly process for launch.

The success of the launch proved a two-fold concept of operations. For SSC, Assured Access to Space successfully demonstrated and highlighted its agility in partnership with industry to respond to changing national needs by executing an NSS-class launch in less than five months.

For SpOC, the event not only marked a first for Mission Delta 31 as the SV lead but also demonstrated flexibility and responsiveness by reducing the typical six-month SV pre-launch processing timeline to approximately three months. Similar to the flexibility with launch partners for AATS, this also included coordination with MD 31 and Lockheed Martin in Colorado to process SV-07 out of storage within the reduced timescale.

This launch was the first exercise of trailblazer capabilities for the GPS constellation.

www.ssc.spaceforce.mil