SpaceX and the USA Space forces get along famous. Elon Musk's company is preparing to launch a military GPS satellite from Florida on Friday. This follows a Space Force Falcon 9 launch in June. The launch is scheduled for a 15 minute window that will open to the at 6:43 p.m. PT Weather forecast 70% good for a start.
SpaceX is hosting a livestream of the launch. The company will attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The spaceship is scheduled to be deployed about 90 minutes after launch.
The GPS III Space Vehicle (SV) 04 is the fourth in a line of GPS satellites operated by the US Space Force, the newest branch of the military. It will join a larger satellite constellation that is already in orbit.
It's been a busy week for rocket launches that haven't yet been launched. SpaceX was slated to launch a new batch of Starlink communications satellites into orbit on a Falcon 9 on Thursday, but that was about it Start has been scrubbed and is being postponed. The United Launch Alliance also intended to deploy a Delta IV Heavy missile on Wednesday with a classified spy satellite, but a The technical problem stopped the last attempt.
Falcon 9 and GPS III-4 vertically on pad 40 in Florida. Today's 15-minute launch window opens at 9:43 p.m. EDT. The weather forecast is 70% favorable for the start → https://t.co/bJFjLCzWdK pic.twitter.com/x34amrWoRt
- SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 2, 2020
The postponed Starlink launch in combination with the Space Force mission provided a good opportunity to take pictures. SpaceX shared a Check out the pair of Falcon 9s on their separate launch pads on Twitter earlier this week.
The destination is Thursday, October 1st at 9:17 am EDT for Starlink launch. Due to a conflict in range, GPS III-4 is now scheduled to launch on Friday, October 2nd. The 15-minute window opens at 9:43 p.m. EDT pic.twitter.com/VVhhatjBbh
- SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 30, 2020
We'll see if SpaceX can put the GPS mission into orbit as planned. As we've seen this week, delays are common.
