Air Force open to reusable rockets, but SpaceX must first demonstrate performance

[Elderberry]

Space News by Sandra Erwin — December 16, 2018

The Air Force will need time to review SpaceX’s performance as it executes EELV launches before it would consider flying military payloads on reusable rockets.

WASHINGTON — SpaceX in its first national security launch for the U.S. Air Force will not attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. The Block 5 version of the vehicle scheduled to lift a GPS 3 satellite on Dec. 18 is an expendable rocket with no legs or grid fins.

The Air Force decided that only an expendable rocket could meet “mission performance requirements,” said Walter Lauderdale, mission director of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center’s Launch Enterprise Systems Directorate.

A number of factors led to this decision, including the mission trajectory and payload weight. “There simply was not performance reserved to meet our requirements and allow them, for this mission, to bring the first stage back,” Lauderdale said Dec. 14 in a conference call with reporters.

Lauderdale during the call mentioned the word “uncertainty” several times to underscore the Air Force’s thinking about reusable rockets and about working with a new launch provider.

The GPS 3 launch will mark SpaceX’s debut as a military contractor under the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The company won an $82.7 million contract in 2016 for the first GPS 3 mission, which had been originally scheduled for May 2018 but was delayed for additional testing of the Block 5 rocket. SpaceX’s entry into the EELV program marked a significant transition for the Air Force after a decade of working exclusively with United Launch Alliance. For this particular launch, ULA did not submit a bid. SpaceX won a second GPS 3 launch contract in 2017 for $96.3 million. Earlier this year, it scored a $290 million deal for three additional GPS launches.

More: https://spacenews.com/air-force-open-to-reusable-rockets-but-spacex-must-first-demonstrate-performance/

[Elderberry]

Next-generation of GPS satellites are headed to space

ABC News  By Dan Elliott 12/16/2018

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/us-air-force-set-launch-1st-generation-gps-59849326

After months of delays, the U.S. Air Force is about to launch the first of a new generation of GPS satellites, designed to be more accurate, secure and versatile.

But some of their most highly touted features will not be fully available until 2022 or later because of problems in a companion program to develop a new ground control system for the satellites, government auditors said.

The satellite is scheduled to lift off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It's the first of 32 planned GPS III satellites that will replace older ones now in orbit. Lockheed Martin is building the new satellites outside Denver.

 GPS is best-known for its widespread civilian applications, from navigation to time-stamping bank transactions. The Air Force estimates that 4 billion people worldwide use the system.

But it was developed by the U.S. military, which still designs, launches and operates the system. The Air Force controls a constellation of 31 GPS satellites from a high-security complex at Schriever Air Force Base outside Colorado Springs.

Compared with their predecessors, GPS III satellites will have a stronger military signal that's harder to jam — an improvement that became more urgent after Norway accused Russia of disrupting GPS signals during a NATO military exercise this fall.

GPS III also will provide a new civilian signal compatible with other countries' navigation satellites, such as the European Union's Galileo system. That means civilian receivers capable of receiving the new signal will have more satellites to lock in on, improving accuracy.

"If your phone is looking for satellites, the more it can see, the more it can know where it is," said Chip Eschenfelder, a Lockheed Martin spokesman.

More at link above