The final year of launches in the current breed of Global Positioning System navigation satellites kicks off Wednesday afternoon aboard a Delta 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral.
The U.S. Air Force’s ninth Global Positioning System (GPS) 2F satellite, GPS 2F-9, is encapsulated in the Delta 4 rocket’s four-meter-diameter nose cone at a processing facility and then moved to the launch pad at Complex 37 for mating to its booster inside the mobile service tower.
This is the ascent timeline to be followed by the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket in launching the Air Force’s GPS 2F-9 navigation satellite on March 25 at 2:36 p.m. EDT.
The Delta 4 rocket to launch the next Global Positioning System satellite to sustain the orbiting navigation network has been rolled out to the launch pad.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft achieved all but two of 87 demo objectives on its first orbital flight last month, but details on the capsule’s performance will require dismantling the spaceship’s outer skin in a careful procedure designed to keep most of the Orion prototype intact for future testing.
New video recorded during NASA’s Orion return through Earth’s atmosphere provides viewers a taste of what the vehicle endured as it returned through Earth’s atmosphere during its Dec. 5 flight test.
Navigation satellites, communications spacecraft, classified missions, NASA science projects and the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo ship destined for the International Space Station are on the United Launch Alliance manifest for the new year.