SpaceX Caps GPS III Era with Final Satellite Launch

SpaceX launched the U.S. Space Force's final GPS III satellite, SV10 'Hedy Lamarr', atop a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral after a weather delay, with the booster B1095 returning to a drone ship and both payload fairing halves recovered. The mission continues the migration of GPS launches from ULA to SpaceX under the NSSL Phase 2 contract, in exchange for ULA flying USSF-70 on a Vulcan rocket in 2028. SV10 will spend about 10 days raising to its operational orbit and undergoing testing before handover to the Space Force, and it carries laser cross-link demonstrations and a new digital atomic clock to bolster GPS resiliency ahead of the IIIF generation.