You might remember that back in December there was a little story (second in this roundup) about SpaceX launching a GPS III satellite for the US Space Force as a test of a program to respond quickly to orders to launch a payload.
On Dec. 17th, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, sending a military Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite to orbit in a mission called Rapid Response Trailblazer-1 (RRT-1). The payload was called GPS III SV-07, and the launch was moved from ULA's Vulcan to the Falcon 9 because the Vulcan wasn't an approved launch provider for Space Force payloads.
Tomorrow afternoon, currently scheduled for Friday, May 30 at 1:23 PM local (EDT), GPS III SV-08 is expected to start its trip to take its place in the GPS III constellation.
The launch of GPS III SV-08 — the eighth satellite in the GPS III constellation — was originally assigned to United Launch Alliance (ULA) but was switched to SpaceX as the military prioritizes getting advanced anti-jamming capabilities into orbit as quickly as possible. The move comes as GPS signals face increasing threats from both nation-state actors and inadvertent commercial interference.
This marks the second consecutive GPS III satellite to be switched from ULA to SpaceX, following December’s launch of GPS III SV-07. ULA’s Vulcan, which received certification to launch national security missions, continues to face delays and has accumulated a backlog of military launches.
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In a press call May 28, Space Force officials said the mission was executed on an unusually accelerated timeline. Launch planning for GPS III SV-08 kicked off in February, with Lockheed Martin receiving a formal request on February 21 and SpaceX following on March 7 — just under three months ahead of liftoff. That’s an extraordinary pace for a national security launch, they said, which typically takes 18 to 24 months from contract award.
The reason for accelerating the launch schedule is twofold. The first is that the program is all about being more responsive, and if Space Force determines we need to put a new technology into space, we need to reduce the time it takes to get it done. The second reason is the one mentioned in the first quoted paragraph: there's an urgency to getting AJ (anti-jam) GPS satellites in place.
Col. Andrew Menschner, commander of Mission Delta 31, pointed out, “over 1,100 commercial flights a day are impacted by GPS interference and jamming.”
“There are today 38 GPS satellites in orbit, 31 of which operate on a daily basis,” Menschner said. “We have a healthy redundancy in the constellation. But the addition of SV-08 allows the constellation to build resistance against those who would try to interfere with GPS signals.”
The GPS III SV-08 satellite being readied to ship to Cape Canaveral Space
Force Station, Florida. Credit: Lockheed Martin
The GPS III satellites have other advantages over the older ones already on orbit.
These satellites also broadcast M-code — a hardened, military-only signal — and L5, a new civilian signal operating in a frequency band reserved for aviation safety.
SV-08 will be the 26th M-code capable satellite and the 19th to broadcast the L5 signal. “Over 1,100 commercial flights a day are impacted by GPS interference and jamming,” Menschner said. “We are looking forward to unlocking that capability with the delivery of OCX later this fall.”
The OCX ground system — short for Operational Control Segment — is a long-delayed but vital piece of infrastructure that will fully enable the M-code and L5 signals. Once online, it will bolster both defense operations and civilian aviation safety.
One wonders how long it will be before ULA can't make any of its contracted launches and someone with the power to stop it all decides to just cancel ULA?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile SpaceX is just sitting there waiting... to pounce on any open launch opportunities.
Probably be a long time, or they get bought out, one way or another the legacy fat must be trimmed or it all like you say goes useless or outright Kaput. Yet they have serious and valuable launch infrastructure, that has to be functional part of their operations.
DeleteMy wife and me have several acquaintances who wholly rely on GPS for navigation. They have no idea how to use a map and have not memorized routes that they frequently used.
ReplyDeleteI do some volunteer driving for some of these people or relatives thereof, and the passengers are shocked that we don't have/use GPS in our cars.
I tell them that I "know" how vulnerable the system is, and I'm not taking any chances. I have seen too many verified reports of GPS driven wrong directions leading to tragedies.
I hope that the new protocols work; but I'm not going to rely on them...ever.
Do you use one of the new(er) cars that only have GPS for the speedometer?
DeleteI love paper maps. Things I can look at and scribble on and futz with. Road maps, nautical charts. And I'll use Mapquest for route planning to strange destinations, printed out, of course, with highlighter marking primary and secondary routes and points of interest.
DeleteFunny, I get to my destination on or before time. While my GPS reliant acquaintances tend to get lost and show up late, some even calling me and getting help finding where they are, because I have paper which is far superior to electronic.
Sure, I'll use GPS... No, who am I kidding? I hate that fake stuff.
Semi-Luddite here.
Up in the WV mountains in my AO, a goid road is a paved "one lane", or a dirt goat path, we live at a fork on part of tge longest road in WV that does not cross a creek, people using GPS up here get lost frequently, giving out directions, get a look at their GPS map, for some reason all the dirt roads are called Bruce Rd. and on the map they are offset, sometimes up to a mile, it really gets folks lost, never see any who stop for directions have maps, so doubly lost, (add to that many are low on fuel, we keep five gallons in gallon gas cans to help out with that, its 12 miles to a truck stop on a state route), then due to high elevation, 3000 plus feet, fog sets in. You want to see what lost looks like, woh. And a oarticularly funny thing, we get asked if tgere are deer around. These people are serious metro/city folks, for some strange reason, they are terrified of deer, so much so, when it gets dark they refuse to drive these unlighted rural roads, and do not mention bears, OMG, they actually go into panic mode. Never seen anything like it, its very strange behavior, on top of that we have near zero cell signal up here, when they lose signal they panic on that also. I just shake my head, there's no figurng it out. But its got comical aspects.
Delete"They have no idea how to use a map and have not memorized routes that they frequently used." - For some reason, this just registered with me.
DeleteI can't understand how one could not memorize routes they drive regularly.
They are too distracted to connect one place to the next. They have literally had the ability to create a map in their heads bred out of them by their education and their culture.
DeleteAll major endeavors require an attention span longer than 3 or 4 seconds. This is why we here in the West are doomed to extinction.
The Russian's have advanced jamming tech in particular regardng weapon data links. Its not hard to think how alarming this has been for the western militaries. Particularly, they enjoyed total more or less domination and uncontested operations. The amount of SLR NATO has provided the Bandarist's is stunning. Add their Stalkink op's into the equation, when it is shut down or repressed it must be like going blind for NATO, there is so much dependent now on its an obvious weak link.
ReplyDeleteFew days ago the Russian's launched a military sat into the same orbit as a critical US .mil sat, the orbital path put it just mikes behind and following the US sat. Its getting serious at the highest echelons. The Russians have launched quite a few new .mil sats, trying to fill the gap in their orbital coverage, most centered of course above or crossing the Donbas arc.
Imagine how many Falcon boosters they have reserved in ready for JIT launch structure. Got to have spares, to add to what? 4 Falcons sitting dry and fully tested plus maybe, 2 spares? And then there are all the new launch complex's that are under construction. Serious Dinero going into this.
ReplyDeleteYeah man! Thats lucrative contracting, even at SpaceX's decent price points. All together since Falcon 9 became such a reliable, and easily scheduled launch platform, how many other payloads have they launched? I can account for four off top of my head civil/corp sats.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of ISR related subjects, someone made a big boo boo in Russia, accidentally let slip a large traunch of secret Russian missile information, onto the web and a news org picked it up. (somehow thats just too inconvenient, like riiiight, a private Russian corporation has all that info. and which military gives a private contractor everything? like nobody ever, its not how military secret security works.)
ReplyDeleteGaslighting anyone? Ferris Bueller!
No attribution links, but here is the first two paragraphs and a link:
ReplyDelete"A trove of 2 million classified documents exposing sensitive details of Russia’s nuclear weapons infrastructure has been obtained by journalists from Danwatch and Der Spiegel.
The leak includes blueprints of strategic sites, most notably the top-secret Avangard missile base in Yasny..."
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/world-news/horrifying-security-breach-hits-russia
(they typically have reliable posts)
In good space news, Butch and Suni out of rehab https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-astronauts-butch-suni-emerge-001601293.html .
ReplyDeleteAs for the Space Force, I am glad they are "accelerating" whatever.
All of the .mil contractor trade magazines that I still get list working in a "GPS denied environment" as a prime condition for any new tech or program. Looks like no one expects the GPS to last very long when the shooting starts. NWT (navigation, wayfinding, time) or is it (PNT?) the acronym varies but means "the things we use the GPS for") is a critical function and they are all looking for alternatives. Starlink is said to have some ability in those areas, although I don't think there is anything official in the spec.
ReplyDeleteSome civilian receivers can listen to any of the three big systems, which might give some redundancy for a while.
I still have paper maps in the vehicles.
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