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Innovation and Accelerated Launch Contribute to Space Acquisition Speed

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  • By SSC Public Affairs
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. --  When the U.S. Space Force (USSF) successfully launched an advanced GPS satellite on May 30, 2025, it didn’t just add a more capable node to the critical global navigation network. It demonstrated a new level of agility by cutting the time between mission kickoff and mission liftoff to just over three months.

“As a Command, we are laser focused on advancing an expert acquisition workforce across all of our mission sets, including launch,” said USSF Lt. Gen. Phil Garrant, commander of Space Systems Command. “The speed demonstrated by our launch team demonstrates what we can achieve through rigorous acquisition excellence and by close collaboration between our acquisitions and operations teams enabled by the Mission and Systems Deltas organizational construct.”

Responsive space access is a driving principle behind commercial space acquisition. In fact, the recently released decisions annex to the DoD’s commercial space strategy plainly states that commercial partners must “be ready to launch payloads when needed.” Key considerations include, but are not limited to, agile spacecraft integration and ready launch vehicles and facilities.

In today’s congested and contested space environment, readiness requires a new level of speed. The first Rapid Response Trailblazer (RRT) was conceived to see just how fast the launch enterprise could accelerate a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) class mission. Its payload was a GPS III satellite originally slated for launch in late 2025. The decision to expedite was made in July of 2024, followed by a concerted effort across multiple USSF organizations to pull an existing GPS III satellite from storage, accelerate integration and launch vehicle readiness, and rapidly process it for launch into orbit within five months.

“Revised planning for this mission and innovation for speed began at launch minus five months instead of our normal launch minus 24 months,” said Col. Jim Horne, formerly senior materiel leader of Launch Execution for SSC’s Assured Access to Space office and currently commander of Space Launch Delta 30 and the Western Launch and Test Range, Vandenberg Space Force Base.

On Dec. 16, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried GPS-III SV-07 to orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, in a powerful demonstration of the Space Force’s increasing ability to deploy crucial assets on accelerated timelines. The newest satellite in the GPS constellation was declared operational less than one month later.

“This launch showed our ability to respond quickly to an operational need, such as a possible on-orbit vehicle failure. It also demonstrated our willingness to challenge traditional timelines associated with launches in response to a realistic scenario,” said USSF Col. Andrew Menschner, former commander of USSF Combat Forces Command Mission Delta 31 and now deputy commander of Space Systems Command.

It was also the first launch coordinated under the new Space Force Mission/Systems Delta construct created to deliver more effective integration between the service’s acquisitions and operations arms in support of unified mission readiness.

Could the next GPS launch go even faster?

Building iteratively on the lessons learned from the five-month record set by the first Rapid Response Trailblazer, the launch of GPS-III SV-08 proved that it can. The payload was prepped and launched in just over three months.

“This second accelerated launch for GPS III is a continued demonstration of the United States Space Force's capability to rapidly reconstitute the constellation should a need arise to do so,” said Menschner. “With 38 GPS satellites now in orbit, 31 of which operate on a daily basis, we have a healthy redundancy in the constellation. That's great news for our joint military force and the six billion civilian users that rely on GPS for global flight operations, other means of travel, commerce, banking, farming, and enhanced 911 capabilities that get help to people where they need it.”

Launch is a critical and complex phase of acquisition that begins well before a rocket goes vertical. Achieving a launch preparation timeline once considered improbable involved a highly synchronized effort to streamline every step of the process. According to Dr. Walt Lauderdale, SSC mission director and chief of Falcon Systems and Operations, several factors played in favor of achieving record speed. The first was that the GPS payloads were ready and waiting in storage. The second was that this was the 7th launch of a GPS-III satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket and the second launch following an expedited timeline.

“The ability to once again demonstrate a quick turn launch of crucial capability helps us understand the key aspects that enable such a capability and further prepare for similar mission timelines in the future,” said Lauderdale. “If there is a need to get something on orbit quickly, something that is unpredicted at the time, we now know what it would take in order to make that happen.”

Although SV-08 was already built and waiting in storage, it was far from ready to launch. Solar arrays and other parts are typically stowed separately from the spacecraft. According to Malik Musawwir, vice president of Navigation Systems at Lockheed Martin, SV-08 had to be taken out of storage, assembled, and then put through a rigorous testing protocol before it could be prepared for shipment.

“As you can imagine, it's not easy to move a spacecraft across the country,” he noted. “We have to make sure it's in a protected environment, in a controlled atmosphere, and safe from external effects like humidity and any of the mechanical environments you would expose a spacecraft to as you're transporting it across the country in shipping container.”
That was just to get it out the door from Colorado to Florida.

“Once we get it to Florida, we're talking about all the additional post processing activities that happen at the Cape from testing to integrating it into the rocket’s payload fairing, and then to loading it on top of the rocket booster,” Malik said.

Collectively, these steps are known as “payload processing.” Without adequate spaceport infrastructure, payload processing has the potential to become a significant bottleneck in the launch cycle as the nation’s Eastern and Western launch ranges support more launches and more multi-manifesting for each launch.

In April, SSC awarded a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Space Vehicle (SV) Processing Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) contract to expand commercial SV processing capacity for NSSL missions at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The $77.5 million CSO award is a public-private partnership for cost sharing of launch infrastructure to support the increased demands of both military and commercial launch activities. In October, a $78.25 million CSO contract was awarded for space vehicle processing capacity expansion at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

“The strength and innovation of the commercial space sector is a force multiplier for our joint force and our nation’s security,” noted Garrant. “We are committed to making strategic acquisition decisions that ensure our national security needs are met, while also fostering a robust and competitive commercial space industry.”

By proving they can compress a complex launch campaign into months instead of years, the Space Force and its commercial partners have established a new benchmark for responsiveness. The close partnership of acquisitions and operations, working in lockstep with industry, is a practical application of the vision put forth by Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance B. Salzman of a more unified and responsive force.

A version of this article appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of SpacePower magazine.

 

 

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