Lockheed, Space Force Prep Next GPS III Satellite for Launch

COLORADO SPRINGS—The U.S. Space Force’s next GPS III satellite has arrived at Cape Canaveral SFS ahead of a planned launch no earlier than next month, the service announced April 7.

The service anticipates launching the Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft, known as Space Vehicle-08, on an expedited schedule, similar to the rapid process used to deploy the GPS III SV-07 satellite to orbit on Dec. 16, 2024. Typically, launch preparation can take up to 24 months; the service is looking to condense that to three months in this instance.

Lockheed Martin began the shipment of SV-08 on “a few days’ notice” after receiving an accelerated call-up notice from the Space Force, the company said April 7. Nicknamed in honor of American mathematician Katherine Johnson, the satellite is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape.

The Space Force’s Space Operations Command Mission Delta 31 is leading the pre-launch processing in coordination with Lockheed. The spacecraft arrived at the Cape on April 3 on a U.S. Air Force C-17.

The current GPS constellation includes 31 operational spacecraft, to include GPS III SV-07, which was operationally accepted on Jan. 8.

The final two GPS III satellites, SV-09 and SV-10, are on target to be completed and ready to be called up by the Space Force for launch in 2025, Malik Musawwir, Lockheed Martin Space vice president of navigation systems, said during an April 7 media event at the company’s Colorado Springs facility. A launch date for those two systems has not been announced.

The company then will focus on the next phase of the program known as GPS III Follow-On (IIIF). Lockheed is on contract to build IIIF satellites through SV-20, with options to continue up to SV-32. The company completed the core mate of the first GPS IIIF satellite in February 2025, with a first launch expected in the 2027 timeframe, Musawwir said.

This next generation of spacecraft will feature key upgrades including a boosted civilian signal to increase commercial flight safety, a civilian search-and-rescue payload, and an anti-jam capability up to 60 times more effective than current on-orbit capabilities.

The GPS III and IIIF spacecraft also include a government-furnished onboard nuclear detection system that can monitor unsanctioned terrestrial and on-orbit activities, Musawwir said. That system was introduced on the IIR-M units launched in 2005-09. The payload can detect a nuclear detonation and relay that information across the entire constellation. The satellites also are hardened against man-made nuclear threats, he added.

The current GPS constellation contains spacecraft from four different programs, Musawwir noted. The oldest spacecraft in operation were launched between 1997 and 2004 under the GPS IIR program, but the constellation also includes satellites built under the IIR-M and IIF programs, along with the seven new GPS III spacecraft.

Some of those older spacecraft are two to three times past their originally intended design lives, Musawwir said. “We’re really in a state of borrowed time on some of these vehicles,” he said.