6th Modernized GPS Satellite Launched

The sixth US Air Force modernized Global Positioning System, the Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellite, has been launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II launch vehicle on 15th March 2008.

The satellite, designated GPS IIR-19M, is the sixth in a line of eight GPS IIR satellites that Lockheed Martin Navigation Systems (PA, USA) has modernised for its customer, the Global Positioning Systems Wing, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base (CA, USA).

This mission represented the third successful launch of a GPS IIR-M satellite in under five months and is one of the final three Block IIR-M satellites planned for launch in 2008 to sustain and improve the GPS constellation.

Lockheed Martin and its navigation payload provider ITT of Clifton, N.J. designed and built 21 IIR spacecraft and subsequently modernised eight of those spacecraft designated Block IIR-M for the Air Force. The final satellite, which includes a new demonstration payload that will provide a temporary on-orbit demonstration for the new civil signal, known as L5, has just completed final integration testing and is on track for shipment to Cape Canaveral next month in preparation for launch in June.