<\/em><\/p>\n L2 Resources: All the ELV and EELV Vehicle Manuals and Payload Planner\u2019s Guides, plus more.<\/font><\/p>\n **LIVE EVENT PAGES FOR Delta II\/GPS IIR-18 Launch**<\/p>\n **FREE Delta II\/GPS IIR-18 Launch Video**<\/font><\/em> \u2013 (Available now) \u2013 <\/em>Free to all forum members (registration is free \u2013 we do not use your e-mail for spam, only to send you your forum password \u2013 which is automated. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Reaction:<\/font><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n <\/font><\/font>\u2018<\/font><\/font><\/font>With the launch of GPS IIR-18(M), ULA completes a tremendously successful first year of operation and demonstrates its commitment to 100 percent mission success,\u2019 said Mark Wilkins, vice president of Delta Programs. <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u2018As we continue to provide safe, cost-effective, reliable access to space, we are privileged to serve an important role in critical missions, such as GPS, which are force multipliers for our men and women in uniform serving our country throughout the world.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/font> \u2018Our team is now focused on performing a rapid and efficient on-orbit checkout to quickly place the satellite\u2019s advanced navigational capabilities into operational service.\u2019<\/p>\n Mission Overview:<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n The 13th launch of the year for a busy ULA comes via their eighth launch of the Delta II launch vehicle \u2013 the second carrying a USAF payload. The latter part of 2007 has seen eight launches for ULA in the space of just 94 days. <\/font><\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s launch is utilizing the 7925-9.5 variant of the Delta II \u2013 a three stage vehicle involving nine strap on solid rocket motors (six ground start, three air start). The ride to spacecraft separation will take 68 minutes.<\/font><\/p>\n The spacecraft riding on the Delta II is the fifth in a series of eight modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellites built by Lockheed Martin for the USAF.<\/font><\/p>\n The spacecraft, designated GPS IIR-18M, is a modernized version of the Block IIR series designed to enhance the GPS constellation for military and civilian GPS users around the globe. <\/p>\n The modernized series delivers increased signal power to receivers on the ground, two new military signals for improved accuracy, enhanced encryption and anti-jamming capabilities for the military, and a second civil signal to provide users with an open access signal on a different frequency. <\/p>\n The GPS constellation provides critical situational awareness and precision weapon guidance for the military and supports a wide range of civil, scientific and commercial functions \u2013 from air traffic control to the Internet \u2013 with precision location and timing information. <\/p>\n \u2018Built by a dedicated, experienced team, this advanced satellite will provide another step forward in our customer\u2019s goal to modernize the GPS constellation,\u2019 said Don DeGryse, Lockheed Martin\u2019s vice president of Navigation Systems. \u2018We are extremely proud of our partnership with the Air Force to maintain and enhance the vitally important GPS mission and we look forward to achieving mission success for our customer.\u2019<\/p>\n Lockheed Martin Navigation Systems, Valley Forge, Pa. prime contractor for the GPS IIR program and navigation payload provider ITT of Clifton, N.J. designed and built 21 IIR spacecraft and subsequently modernized eight of those spacecraft, designated Block IIR-M, for the Global Positioning Systems Wing, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. <\/p>\n \u2018The Delta team is proud to be the launch provider for the Air Force Global Positioning System (GPS) program by delivering replenishment satellites to orbit aboard the Delta II rocket. GPS satellites serve and protect our war fighters by providing navigational assistance for U.S. military operations on land, at sea and in the air,\u2019 noted a joint statement from John Gerlitz, Director USAF\/MLV-III Program Delta II and Major Walt Jimenez Program Manager (Acting) Delta Launch Group.<\/p>\n \u2018Civilian users around the world also use and depend on GPS for directional assistance. GPS IIR-18 (M) is the fifth of the modernized GPS satellites, incorporating various improvements to provide greater accuracy, increased resistance to interference and enhanced performance for users. <\/p>\n \u2018We wish to thank our Delta II team, which consists of the U. S. Air Force, The Aerospace Corporation, ULA, and major suppliers of ULA, for their continued hard work and commitment to mission success. We look forward to continuing our support for the Air Force aboard Delta II launch vehicles.\u2019<\/font><\/p>\n <\/font>Full mission background is available on the live event page \u2013 linked above.<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The end to a busy year for the United Launch Alliance (ULA) has seen the launch of their Delta II launch vehicle, carrying the GPS IIR-18 spacecraft into orbit for the United States Air Force, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Following a nominal 1 hour and 8 minute flight, the launch vehicle successfully deployed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRepresenting the second successful GPS IIR-M mission in just two months, the satellite launched today joins four IIR-M satellites and 12 other operational Block IIR satellites within the current 30-spacecraft constellation. <\/font>
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\n<\/font>\u2018The successful deployment of this high-performance satellite represents another important milestone in the modernization of the GPS constellation and reflects our commitment to achieving mission success for our customer,\u2019 said Don DeGryse, Lockheed Martin\u2019s vice president of Navigation Systems.<\/p>\n