Some prelaunch photos from SpaceX's webcast email.
Any idea if one or both are rerouting to the GPS III SV04 recovery zone? Seems unlikely but would be fun to see four catch attempts in one day
They are back at the GPS site now. It's only 60 km between the two sites. We'll see what they do.
Falcon 9 and GPS III-4 vertical on Pad 40 in Florida. Tonight's 15-minute launch window opens at 9:43 p.m. EDT. Weather forecast is 70% favorable for liftoff → spacex.com/launches
Today seems like a good day for a rocket launch. #SpaceX #GPSIIISV04
Doe this satellite also have a nickname like the first three GPS III satellites (Vespucci, Magellan, Columbus)?
By special request... the full three day track of the SpaceX fleet as they switched between the recovery sites.I am so sorry for creating this.
LAUNCH UPDATE: SpaceX's GPS III SV04 sits on pad LC-40 this morning awaiting tonights 9:43pm EDT launch. The GPS III satellite will be used to keep the Navstar Global Positioning System operational aiding the military as well as civilian usage. #NASA #SpaceX #Space
The Space Force says it changed the nickname of a GPS navigation satellite launched in June from Columbus to instead honor Matthew Henson, a Black explorer on the first expedition to the North Pole more than a century ago, “to acknowledge a fuller history of courageous explorers and pioneers.”The military’s next GPS navigation satellite, set for launch Friday night, is nicknamed “Sacagawea” after the Shoshone woman who helped guide Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the American West in the first decade of the 1800s.
A spokesperson from the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center said nicknames selected by the GPS 3 team are “unofficial and not a formal part of the GPS 3 program.”
