SpaceX launches military GPS satellite

A SPACEX rocket carrying a US military navigation satellite blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral yesterday, the space transportation company’s first national security space mission for the United States.

The Falcon 9 rocket carrying a roughly US$500 million GPS satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:51am local time (13:51 GMT). Four previous scheduled launches in last week, including one on Saturday, were canceled due to weather and technical issues.

The successful launch is a significant victory for billionaire Elon Musk’s privately held rocket company, which has spent years trying to break into the lucrative market for military space launches dominated by Lockheed and Boeing Co.

SpaceX sued the US Air Force in 2014 over the military’s award of a multibillion-dollar, non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches to United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed. It dropped the suit in 2015 after the Air Force agreed to open up competition.

The next year, SpaceX won a US$83 million Air Force contract to launch the GPS III satellite, with a lifespan of 15 years.

The satellite is the first to launch out of 32 in production by Lockheed under contracts worth a combined US$12.6 billion for the Air Force GPS III program.