A military Global Positioning System satellite for the Air Force has been launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida atop an Atlas Rocket, officials confirmed.
The $245 million satellite, built by Boeing, is the eighth in the U.S. military's Block 2F series, replacing an aging unit in the 31-satellite GPS network.
The 189-foot-tall Atlas racket the lifted the satellite into orbit Wednesday afternoon was built by Boeing and Lockheed Martin in a partnership, United Launch Alliance, which also conducted the launch operation.
There was some concern about the Atlas, which shares some components with the Antares rocket built by Orbital Sciences, one of which exploded Tuesday moments after launching from Wallops Island, Virginia, and destroyed an unmanned capsule intended to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
"The 45th Space Wing and the launch team evaluated the Atlas 5 launch vehicle for common components with the failed Antares launch vehicle (and) have determined that these common components do not introduce any additional risk to the success of the Atlas 5 GPS mission," the Air Force said in a statement released before Wednesday's launch.
The launch, which sent the next-generation satellite toward an orbit 12,660 miles above the Earth, was the 50th successful operation for the ULA Atlas 5 rocket design since 2002.
The GPS network, originally created for use by the U.S. military, is now used by millions of people around the globe to fix their position and navigate their environment.
"Since its inception in the 1970s, GPS has evolved into an essential capability that enables technologies employed every day across our nation and the world," Col. Bill Cooley, director of the Air Force's Global Positioning System Directorate, said before the launch. "Thanks to the investment of the American people and stewardship of the Air Force, we are able to improve on a service that greatly benefits the U.S., allied warfighters and billions of GPS users around the world."
The satellite, dubbed GPS 2F, has a 12-year design life.
It joins other GPS 2F satellites, first launched in 2010, and features improved accuracy, upgraded anti-jamming protections, and now features a signal that can help in commercial aviation search-and-rescue operations.
Their onboard atomic clocks, crucial to their precise operation, are twice as accurate of previous versions, officials said.
A total of twelve GPS 2F satellites will join the network by the end of 2016.
A fleet of GPS satellites circles the world so that a minimum of four are constantly above the horizon for a user anywhere on the surface of the Earth.
