Launch Photos! SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Soars with 1st GPS III Navigation Satellite

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Horrible Weather on Try 2

SpaceX

By Thursday, Dec. 20, SpaceX was ready for another launch attempt for GPS III SV01. But Mother Nature was not. Severe weather, including thunderstorms, potential hail and more forced SpaceX to stand down for the day. It's next try would come Saturday, Dec. 22.

A Windy Delay

SpaceX

SpaceX made a third try to launch GPS III SV01 on Saturday, Dec. 22. But again, bad weather thwarted the mission. In this case, it was strong winds in the upper atmosphere, which were beyond SpaceX's launch constraints, that forced a delay.

SpaceX GPS III SV01 Mission Patch

SpaceX

The mission patch for SpaceX's GPS III SV01 navigation satellite launch for the U.S. Air Force.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001. He covers human spaceflight, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. He's a recipient of the 2022 Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting and the 2025 Space Pioneer Award from the National Space Society. He is an Eagle Scout and Space Camp alum with journalism degrees from the USC and NYU. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.