Airmen at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., worked with United Launch Alliance to launch a Delta II rocket that boosted Lockheed Martin Global Positioning Satellite IIR-20(M) into orbit at 4:34 a.m. (EDT) Tuesday. ULA noted that the event marked the 47th successful GPS launch for the Delta II booster over its 20-year career. “One third of the 140 successful Delta II launches have been dedicated to GPS satellites,” Jim Sponnick, ULA’s vice president for the Delta Product Line, said in a ULA release, noting, too, that the ULA team is “extremely proud” to have played a role in launching this “incredible constellation.” The GPS sat launched this week is the seventh of eight modernized satellites developed by Lockheed that has enhanced military and civil signal performance. It also includes a demonstration payload comprising a third civil signal that complies with international radio frequency spectrum requirements that Don DeGryse, Lockheed’s VP for navigation systems, said in a company release is “an innovative, low-risk, low-cost demonstration payload that will pave the way for the new operational third civil signal.”
If the Air Force is in line for a big budget bump from President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027, the head of Air Combat Command said he would make aircraft spare parts his top spending priority—but cautioned that more money to buy parts won’t equal a…
