CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new navigation satellite is in space and is expected to be helping soldiers, travelers, boaters and hikers in less than a month
The Global Positioning System satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, was hoisted into a clear, cold night by a Boeing Delta 2 rocket at 3:05 a.m. Sunday.
The $45 million satellite brings the constellation in orbit to a record number of 29; 24 are considered a full complement. This one, dubbed 2R-10, will replace an aging satellite whose solar panels have to be operated manually.
"GPS helps us make life-and-death decisions every day," an Army major recently told Col. Allan Ballenger, system program director of the Navstar GPS Joint Program Office for Air Force Space Command.
The major's job was sweeping for minefields, Ballenger said. With GPS, soldiers can plot exactly which areas are safe and which have mines. People with GPS receivers, whether civilian or military, can pinpoint their locations thanks to signals from the satellites. The satellites also provide highly accurate clocks.
That information was used recently on thousands of guided munitions in the Iraq war and even in the operation to find former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, said Andy Wulfestieg, chief of GPS operations for the Air Force Space Command.
The Air Force is in the middle of launching this newest generation of GPS satellites and expects to launch about four a year until the final 10 fly, Ballenger said.
The next, 2R-11, likely will launch in March from Cape Canaveral, he said.
There was a 15-minute launch window early Sunday morning. A hold in the countdown was called with just a couple of minutes to go, after a sensor alarm went off, but the launch team managed to recycle the countdown and get the rocket off the ground at the end of the window.
Visibility was excellent as the rocket zoomed off the pad, briefly setting aglow thin, scattered clouds. Light and shadow shifted quickly through the clouds as the rocket moved through and above them.
More than an hour later, the satellite was placed in orbit.
The Air Force expects it will take about 25 days to get the new satellite fully operational.
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright 2003 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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