Yet another "who you gonna call?" moment

As has happened before, the US Space Force needs to launch an important payload that had originally been assigned to United Launch Alliance and ULA isn't able to launch it, not having any rockets available to be assigned to this mission. This is partly due to the Vulcan being grounded and partly due to the few remaining Atlas Vs already being assigned to other missions. ULA has nothing that can do the job for Space Force.

So who are they gonna call? SpaceX, who else?

Next month's GPS III-8 mission had been slated to fly atop United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. But Vulcan has experienced issues with its solid rocket boosters (SRBs), so the Space Force is moving the GPS spacecraft onto a SpaceX Falcon 9. 

"With this change, we are answering the call for rapid delivery of advanced GPS capability while the Vulcan anomaly investigation continues," Space Force Col. Ryan Hiserote, Space Systems Command System Delta 80 commander and National Security Space Launch system program director, said in a statement today (March 20).

To refresh the big picture for newer readers, ULA developed the Vulcan rocket to replace their Atlas V, and the Vulcan had its first flight in January of '24, flying a total of four missions on a Vulcan Centaur. Half of those four missions - flights three and four - had problems with the solid rocket boosters used to increase the liftoff weight the Vulcan put into orbit. The Vulcan's flight control software overcame the problem both times, successfully reaching orbit and notching its mission goals, but Space Force was concerned enough that the failure rate of the SRBs was too high - and grounded the vehicle until the failure analysis investigation completes. 

To be a bit blunt, today's news about the GPS III-8 mission isn't even remotely surprising. After all, we all remember that Vulcan is currently grounded. If all goes to plan, the satellite — the 10th and final one in the GPS III line — will lift off no earlier than late April from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. 

Since the way US Space Force does these changes to the launch vehicles is to swap missions between their two contractors. SpaceX is going to give up USSF-70, a national security mission that had been manifested on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. USSF-70 will fly no earlier than summer 2028, according to Space Force officials.
 

An earlier GPS III satellite, SV-08, being readied to ship to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station after being assigned to SpaceX from ULA, Florida. Credit: Lockheed Martin