Thursday night, SpaceX is slated to launch a new, upgraded GPS satellite for the US Space Force from Cape Canaveral, Florida — the latest spacecraft intended to help modernize the current GPS fleet. This will be the fourth GPS satellite of its kind to launch in the last three years, and the third one to be launched by SpaceX.
The satellite going up on this flight is GPS III SV04, which will become one of 31 primary GPS satellites in orbit. This vehicle is part of a new block of GPS III spacecraft intended to slowly replace the current aging GPS vehicles. Built by Lockheed Martin, these GPS III satellites are supposed to be three times more accurate than their predecessors and have more advanced “anti-jamming” capabilities to prevent…