It is one of the global navigation satellite systems gnss that provides geolocation and time information to a gps receiver anywhere on or near the earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to.
Gps satellite orbit speed.
Relative to the earth gps satellites orbit twice in a sidereal day the length of time the stars instead of the sun take to return to the original position in the sky.
The transmitted power requirement really isn t an issue.
The launch window opens at 9 43 p m.
View space force.
Since a sidereal day is about 4 minutes shorter than a solar day a gps satellite orbits once every 11 hours and 58 minutes.
This equation holds for any orbiting object where the attraction is the force of gravity whether it s a human made satellite orbiting the earth or the earth orbiting the sun.
On december 23 2018 the first gps iii satellite was launched aboard a spacex falcon 9.
View pre launch news release 3.
Gps block iiia is the first series of third generation gps satellites incorporating new signals and broadcasting at higher power levels.
If they were higher their antenna gain could be more the beam is narrower and still covers the earth and besides.
The gps satellites are at roughly half geo height 20 000km vs 40 000km.
View pre launch news release 1.
View pre launch news release 2.
The space force successfully launched the third gps iii satellite into orbit.
In september 2016 the air force awarded lockheed martin a contract option for two more block iiia satellites setting the total number of gps iiia satellites to ten.