LIVE COVERAGE: Delta IV Launch Successful From Cape Canaveral

By  //  February 20, 2014

will launch a new GPS navigation satellite

BREVARD COUNTY • CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION – A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket lifted off tonight from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8:59 p.m. 

Going for its 25th flight, the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket family launced a new Global Positioning System navigation satellite. (LIVESTREAM image)
Going for its 25th flight, the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket family launched a new Global Positioning System navigation satellite. (LIVESTREAM image)

The payload is a Global Positioning System navigation satellite.

GPS satellites orbit about 11,000 nautical miles above the planet and emit continuous navigation signals that allow users to find their location in latitude, longitude and altitude and determine time.

This was the 25th launch of a Delta 4 rocket, the commercially-developed Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle fielded in 2002 by Boeing, then merged into operator United Launch Alliance’s fleet in 2006.

Launching the nation’s largest and sophisticated spy satellites to weather observatories and communications satellites, the Delta 4 rocket has been used to deploy U.S. government spacecraft the majority of the time.

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