Overview
- The Lockheed Martin–built satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s SLC‑40 at 11:53 p.m. ET Tuesday and achieved signal acquisition before transferring to Lockheed Martin’s Denver Launch & Checkout Operations Center for on-orbit checkout.
- The Space Force reassigned the mission from ULA’s Vulcan to a Falcon 9 to speed delivery of capability, with officials citing a heavily loaded Vulcan manifest.
- This marks the third GPS III mission moved from Vulcan to SpaceX, and a later GPS IIIF mission was traded in the opposite direction, according to Col. Ryan Hiserote.
- GPS III provides roughly three-times better positioning accuracy and eight-times improved anti-jamming through M‑Code, and SV09 also carries a demonstration payload and a laser retroreflector to refine Earth‑orientation measurements.
- The launch followed a weather-related slip from the earlier target, and the Falcon 9 first stage—on its fifth flight—was set to attempt a droneship landing downrange.