The rocket will carry a roughly $500 million global positioning system (GPS) satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp and is due to take off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral shortly after 9 am local time (1400 GMT). “It’s almost a near certainty that Cape Canaveral will get thunderstorms in the morning, with some severe winds,” Burke said. It marks SpaceX’s first so-called National Security Space mission, as defined by the US military, SpaceX said. SpaceX won an $83 million Air Force contract in 2016 to launch the GPS III satellite, which will have a lifespan of 15 years. The next GPS III satellite is due to launch in mid-2019, Eschenfelder said, while subsequent satellites undergo testing in the company’s Colorado processing facility.

Source: Egypt Independent December 20, 2018 09:22 UTC