Halloween treat: Atlas V delivers GPS satellite to orbit
CAPE CANAVERAL — United Launch Alliance on Saturday kept at bay any goblins and ghosts haunting local launch pads and successfully executed its third October mission on Halloween.
A 19-story Atlas V rocket thundered from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station into blue sky at 12:13 p.m. and climbed to the northeast, fulfilling the “launchoween” hashtag popular in social media posts during the countdown.
A few hours later, ULA confirmed that a Global Positioning System satellite had safely reached orbit, continuing a rapid modernization of the Department of Defense’s largest and most widely recognized constellation.
“The GPS constellation is the most robust and capable system in the history of space,” said Col. Steve Whitney, director of the Air Force’s Global Positioning System. “GPS is the critical enabler for the U.S. military to provide national security, and worldwide service for billions of users around the globe.”
Count yourself among the billions if you’ve ever looked up your location or directions on a smart phone, or tracked a training run or bike ride on a watch or other GPS-enabled device.
The mission was ULA’s third refreshing the GPS constellation this year, after four last year.
“It’s an amazing streak,” said Whitney.
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Within about a month, the new satellite should replace a 19-year old predecessor as one of 31 active GPS spacecraft orbiting in six planes about 12,500 miles up.
The infusion of new blood over the past several years is weeding out older GPS models, some of which have lasted far beyond the seven-and-a-half years they were designed to operate. The oldest is 25.
“You will see very significant drop in the average age” of the satellites, Whitney said, by the time all 12 of the current generation enter service. The new spacecraft are designed to serve more than 12 years, but will likely last longer.
For ULA, the GPS mission followed an Atlas V’s successful launch of a commercial satellite from the Cape on Oct. 2, and another Atlas V launch of a classified U.S. intelligence mission from California on Oct. 8.
It’s not the first time ULA has launched three missions in a month, but is it the first time the same type of rocket flew all three.
In December 2006, when ULA was just starting as a joint venture formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the company launched two Delta II rockets and one Atlas V.
“We’re hitting our stride, I believe,” said Ron Fortson, ULA’s mission management director. “We’ve done a lot of work over the last several years to really work on streamlining our launch processing activity, to enable us to be able to have this type of capability, to be able to turnaround and launch as quickly as we’ve been able to do.”
With 11 launches in the books this year, ULA has one left: an Atlas V launch of an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft packed with International Space Station cargo, targeted for Dec. 3.
SpaceX also hopes to return its Falcon 9 rocket to flight in December, with one or two launches that would be the company’s first since a failed ISS resupply launch in June.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.