SpaceX launched an advanced GPS satellite to orbit Monday night (Dec. 16), on a mission that the U.S. Space Force said showcased a new level of responsiveness and readiness.
A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday at 7:52 p.m. EDT (0052 on Dec. 17), kicking off a mission that SpaceX called RRT-1.
The company didn’t provide any other information about the payload; its mission description didn’t even say what “RRT” stood for, if it was indeed an acronym. SpaceX also didn’t show any views of the Falcon 9’s upper stage during the launch webcast and ended the stream about 8.5 minutes after liftoff, at the request of the customer.
The veil of secrecy was lifted a few hours after launch by the U.S. Space Force, which revealed that the mission was a “Rapid Response Trailblazer” that sent an advanced GPS satellite to orbit.
“The mission successfully demonstrated a complex integration effort across multiple Space Force organizations to pull an existing GPS III satellite from storage, accelerate integration and launch vehicle readiness, and rapidly process for launch,” Space Force officials said in an emailed update on Monday night.
Related: SpaceX launches advanced GPS satellite for US Space Force, nails the landing
“This launch was a remarkable achievement that highlights the Space Force’s ability to execute high-priority launches of major space systems on a significantly reduced timescale,” Col. Jim Horne, senior materiel leader of Launch Execution for Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space division, said in the update.
“In this case, revised planning for this RRT began at launch minus-five months instead of our normal launch minus-24 months,” Horne said. “It not only demonstrates the teams’ ability to respond to emergent constellation needs but is a testament to our flexibility and responsiveness to deliver capability as rapidly as Space Vehicle readiness allows. In this case, it’s not just the warfighter, but also the nation and our allies around the world that rely on GPS on a daily basis.”
SpaceX holds a contract to launch three of these GPS-3 satellites for the U.S. military and had already sent one of them aloft, in January 2023.
The Falcon 9’s first stage came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after launch on Monday, touching down on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean as planned. It was the fourth liftoff and landing for this particular booster, according to SpaceX’s mission description.
The rocket’s upper stage, meanwhile, continued carrying the RRT-1 payload to orbit, deploying it there about 90 minutes after launch.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:55 p.m. ET on Dec. 13 with news of the launch scrub, then again at 3:15 a.m. ET on Dec. 16 with news of the Dec. 16 target date. It was updated again at 8:10 p.m. ET on Dec. 16 with news of successful launch and rocket landing, then again at 1 p.m. ET on Dec. 17 with information about the RRT mission and payload.
