SpaceX Falcon 9 : GPS III SV04 : SLC-40 : November 5, 2020

[Steven Pietrobon]

LOS Tasmania expected. Looks like a good orbit.

SpaceX speed calculator by Steven S. Pietrobon. 4 May 2019.
Enter negative perigee height to exit program.
Enter negative final orbit for geosynchronous orbit.

Enter initial perigee height (km): 419
Enter SpaceX speed (km/h): 33800
Enter initial orbit inclination (deg): 55

Estimated inertial speed = 9673.2 m/s
Estimated apogee height = 20442.3 km

[Steven Pietrobon]

T+1 hour 10 minutes.

[Steven Pietrobon]

T+1 hour 20 minutes. Somewhere over the Pacific.

[Steven Pietrobon]

AOS Hawaii.

[LouScheffer]

Altitude was 420 km at insertion, which would lead to a long lived derelict second stage.  Anyone know if they are planning to do any perigee reduction after separation.   It should not take much; even a passive release of remaining propellant in the right direction would help reduce the lifetime significantly.

[Steven Pietrobon]

Signal coming in.

[Steven Pietrobon]

AOS South Texas.

[Steven Pietrobon]

One minute to separation.

[Steven Pietrobon]

Separation!

[Steven Pietrobon]

End of webcast.

Congratulations to SpaceX and USSF for the successful launch!

[Chris Bergin]

Great play by play by Steven again!

https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1324515590300700672

[nzguy]

All CGSIC,

Date/Site/Launch: Thursday, November 05, 2020, GPSIII-04 (SVN-77/PRN-14) launched from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.  It should be noted that the Space Force Second Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS) will issue a LAUNCH NANU at a later date after on-orbit checkout when control of SVN-77 is transferred from Lockheed Martin to 2 SOPS for insertion into the GPS control segment.

Rocket/Payload: A SpaceX Falcon 9/ GPSIII-04 mission for the U.S. Air Force.

Constellation Changes:  2 SOPS indicates that III-04, SVN-77/PRN-14, will replace SVN-44/PRN-28 in the B plane at slot 03.

III-2/SVN 75, launched on 22 Aug 2019, replaced SVN 45/PRN-21 at D3 and was set healthy on 01 Apr ‘20.  As a result, SVN 45 is currently being re-phased from D3 to D2F replacing SVN 46/PRN 11 and will arrive sometime in November of this year. SVN 46 will be taken out of the operational constellation prior to the January 2021 launch of GPSIII-05 SVN-78 and sent to Launch, Anomaly, Resolution, and Disposal Operations (LADO) making PRN-11 available.

III-3/SVN 76/PRN-23, launched 30 June 2020 was set operational and set healthy on October 01, 2020.

SVN-46, launched on 07 October of 1999, has been an "Iron Bird" workhorse in the D-plane and has successfully served the world's GPS users for over 20 years.  This is over 12 years past its designed service life, having operationally outlasted (and in many cases, outperformed) many of its peers on-orbit, testament to quality engineering and the diligent efforts of the men and women of the U.S. Air Force.

Rick Hamilton
CGSIC Executive Secretariat
GPS Information Analysis Team Lead
U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center
703-313-5930

Looking at https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pdf/gps/current.pdf this means that the final IIR SVN61 sat will be left in plane D, slot D1. So after the next GPS-III launch there should be a baseline constellation of 24 sats supporting the second civil signal L2C. However this signal can't be certified as "operational" until the new OCX ground system in deployed in Q4 2022.

[Lars-J]

https://twitter.com/LockheedMartin/status/1324527143339073541

[mlindner]

Does anyone know why the initial launch orbit didn't line up with the predicted orbit on their 3D visualization at all?

[mlindner]

White and blue lines are different from previous mission including GPS missions. White line seems to start from launch site and be different lines and not the next orbit?

Blue: orbit
White: ground trace of orbit

No. Blue is predicted future orbital path with current orbital parameters, white seems to be predicted orbital parameters, light grey is previous orbital track, dark grey is ground track.

[mlindner]

Interesting note at the end. The webcast says "That completes our primary mission" (emphasis mine). Doesn't that imply there is a secondary mission for this launch? Is there a hidden secondary payload?

Timestamp:



The forum software here is really bad and keeps screwing up the URL so I can't link it properly. Go to timestamp 6519 seconds.

[OneSpeed]

Here is a comparison of the launch phases of SV03 and SV04. There is very little to pick between them.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/trevormahlmann/status/1324467335994945538

Shiny! 714.3 megapixel panorama (53,161 x 13,437 px) of @SpaceX Falcon 9 B1062.1 at SLC-40 ready to loft the 4th GPS-III for @SpaceForceDoD tonight between 6:24-6:39pm EST🇺🇸

⚙️/⬇️/🖼: tmahlmann.com/photos/Rockets…

https://twitter.com/trevormahlmann/status/1324504243848552448

Night launches on the space coast never get old🌴🇺🇸
Beautiful view tonight of the 4th GPS-III satellite heading to orbit on a @spacex falcon 9🚀

⚙️/⬇️/🖼: tmahlmann.com/photos/Rockets…

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/considercosmos/status/1324542876089487366

Look at that condensation trail! Highlights from tonight's @SpaceX #GPSIIISV04 launch from the telescope rocket cam 🔭📽️. Managed to catch the last few seconds of reentry burn live with @Erdayastronaut !  #SpaceX @elonmusk

Attached is streak shot from SpaceX website

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1324561370885611526

GPS III SV04 cataloged as 46826 in a 402 x 20183 km x 55.0 deg transfer orbit, confirming successfuly launch by SpaceX.

twitter.com/coastal8049/status/1324564845350383617

Here's tentative confirmation that GPS III SV04 is alive.  Collecting Doppler data to compare and confirm.  Position is correct based on object 46826 TLE.

https://twitter.com/coastal8049/status/1324585419569180672

Doppler analysis confirms ID as 46826.  The @SpaceTrackOrg TLE required some tweaking to get a nice fit.