Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket successfully launched the 10th Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 11:36 a.m. EDT Wednesday 15 July 2015 from Space Launch Complex-41. GPS IIF-10 is one of the next-generation GPS satellites, incorporating various improvements to provide greater accuracy, increased signals, and enhanced performance for users. A video of the launch can be viewed at http://www.ulalaunch.com/file-library.aspx?launchEventID=239
Constellation Changes
The Air Force Second Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS) indicates that IIF-10, SVN-72/PRN-08, will replace SVN-59 in the C plane slot C3. SVN-40/PRN-10 will be taken out of the operational constellation prior to SVN-72 payload initialization and sent to Launch, Anomaly and Disposal Operations (LADO). PRN-10 is tentatively scheduled for assignment to IIF-11, launching in October of this year. SVN-40, launched on 15 August 1996, has been in an auxiliary node in the E-plane and successfully served 18.9 years, almost 12 years beyond its designed service life, due to the diligent efforts of the men and women of the U.S. Air Force. SVN-59 will be re-phased from the C3 location to a newly defined C5 node (GLAN = 46°) once SVN-72 is set healthy. SVN-51 completed a re-phase journey from E1 (GLAN = 146°) to an auxiliary node at E7 (GLAN = 60.7°) in June of 2015.