Watch SpaceX launch advanced GPS satellite for US Space Force tonight

a rocket launches into a blue sky with a lake in the foreground

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the GPS III-SV08 satellite for the U.S. Space Force from Florida on May 30, 2025. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX will launch an advanced GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force from Florida tonight (Jan. 26), and you can watch the action live.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the GPS III-SV09 spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station tonight, during a 15-minute window that opens at 11:46 p.m. EST (0446 GMT on Jan. 27).

The GPS III satellites are built by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and feature "M-Code" technology, which makes them more resistant to jamming than their predecessors, according to Space Force officials.

The first GPS III vehicle lifted off in December 2018. As its name suggests, GPS III-SV09 will be the ninth, out of a planned total of 10, to reach orbit. The final one in the series is expected to go up later this year.

GPS III-SV09 was originally booked to fly on Vulcan Centaur, United Launch Alliance's powerful new rocket. But the Space Force changed that plan.

"For this launch, we traded a GPS III mission from a Vulcan to a Falcon 9, then exchanged a later GPS IIIF mission from a Falcon Heavy to a Vulcan," U.S. Space Force Col. Ryan Hiserote, SYD 80 Commander and National Security Space Launch program manager, said in an emailed statement on Jan. 22.

"Our commitment to keeping things flexible — programmatically and contractually — means that we can pivot when necessary to changing circumstances," he added. "We have a proven ability to adapt the launch manifest to complex and dynamic factors and are continuing to shorten our timelines for delivering critical capabilities to warfighters."

GPS IIIF, by the way, is the next iteration of satellites the U.S. will use for positioning, navigation and timing. (The "F" stands for "follow-on.") The first of these spacecraft is expected to launch in Spring 2027.

a man in a blue flight suit poses for a portrait beside an american flag and a model of a rocket — Official NASA portrait of astronaut Ellison Onizuka (1946-1986). (Image credit: NASA)

The Space Force has named GPS III-SV09 after former U.S. Air Force Col. Ellison Onizuka, one of the seven NASA astronauts who died in the space shuttle Challenger accident on Jan. 28, 1986.

Other former astronauts have been so honored as well. For example, GPS III-SV05 was named after Apollo 11 moonwalker Neil Armstrong, and GPS III-SV07 carries the moniker "Sally Ride," after the first American woman to reach space.

Tonight's flight will be the fifth for this particular Falcon 9's first stage. If all goes according to plan, it will return to Earth about 8.5 minutes after launch, landing vertically on the SpaceX drone ship "A Shortfall of Gravitas" in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, will deploy "Ellison Onizuka" into medium-Earth orbit about 90 minutes after liftoff.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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