A replacement satellite scheduled to join the backbone of a GPS network intended to provide navigational services for the next 15 years is scheduled for a late night launch from Cape Canaveral Friday.
The satellite GPS 2F-7 is scheduled to launch at 11:23 p.m. EDT on a United Launch Alliance Atlas booster, officials said.
It will be the third GPS satellite launched this year and the seventh in an intended series of 12 satellites, Air Force officials said.
Another satellite, GPS 2F-8, is scheduled for October, which will make the first time since 1993 that four or more global positioning satellites were launched in the same year.
"Everyone in the room I am going to guess has been touched by GPS today in one way or another," said Air Force Space Command leader William Shelton in discussing the upcoming launch. "Your smartphone, financial transaction, high-speed network you may have used ... uses GPS timing. It literally serves the world."
Measurements collected from any four satellites in the orbiting constellation can yield position to within a few feet, velocity to fractions of a mile per hour or the time to within a single second.
"As I look around at this audience, I suspect some of you may have caught the space fever, like me, in the early days of space flight," Shelton said. "Others of you are young enough to not even recall a world without GPS chips in your cell phones."
The $245 million GPS 2F-7 satellite will occupy an orbital slot currently home to an older satellite launched in 1997, which in turn will move to another spot in the same orbit and replace one launched in 1992 that is one of the longest serving GPS satellites .
"The primary purpose of launching the new GPS 2F satellites is to field increased GPS signal capabilities, more accurate clocks, and reduce overall constellation risk," an Air Force spokesperson said.
The GPS network, the largest constellation of satellites operated by the Department, currently has 31 operational satellites orbiting the Earth. Twenty-four satellites are required for the GPS network to be completely functional, with the extras available as backup in the event of any problems.
Forecasters are predicting an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for the launch, although lingering showers and clouds from afternoon thunderstorms could present problems.
The launch of the Atlas V rocket will be the 47th for that type since it debuted in 2002 as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program conducted by the Air Force.
