USA-289, also known as GPS-III SV01 or Vespucci, is a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

navigation satellite A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows satellite navigation devices to determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude/elevation) to high pre ...

which forms part of the

Global Positioning System The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

. It was the first

GPS Block III GPS Block III (previously Block IIIA) consists of the first ten GPS III satellites, which will be used to keep the Navstar Global Positioning System operational. Lockheed Martin designed, developed and manufactured the GPS III Non-Flight Sate ...

satellite to be launched.

Satellite

SV01 is the first

satellite to be launched. Ordered in 2008 and originally intended to be launched in 2014, numerous technical delays pushed launch back to 2018. The spacecraft is built on the

Lockheed Martin A2100 The A2100 is a model of communications satellite spacecraft made by Lockheed Martin Space Systems. It is used as the foundation for telecommunications payloads in geosynchronous orbit, as well as GOES-R weather satellites and GPS Block IIIA satell ...

satellite bus, and weighs in at 4,400kg (9,700lbs), making SV01 the heaviest GPS satellite ever launched.

Launch

USA-289 was launched by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

on 23 December 2018 at 13:51 UTC atop expendable

Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and payl ...

booster B1054. The launch took place from

SLC-40 Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), previously Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) is a launch pad for rockets located at the north end of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The launch pad was used by the United States Air Force for 55 Titan III ...

of the

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the statio ...

, and placed USA-289 directly into

semi-synchronous orbit A semi-synchronous orbit is an orbit with a period equal to half the average rotational period of the body being orbited, and in the same direction as that body's rotation. For Earth, a semi-synchronous orbit is considered a medium Earth orbit, w ...

Orbit

As of 2021, USA-289 was in a 55-degree

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a Plane of reference, reference plane and the orbital plane or Axis of rotation, axis of direction of the orbiting object ...

orbit with a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of 20,158 kilometers (12,525 miles) and an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

of 20,222 kilometers (12,565 miles). The satellite is the first GPS satellite to be able to broadcast the civilian L1C signal. GPS III SV01 Mission (45525650685)

References

{{Orbital launches in 2018 Spacecraft launched in 2018 GPS satellites USA satellites SpaceX military payloads