On June 17th, 2021, the United States Space Force successfully launched the 5th Global Positioning System (GPS) III Space Vehicle (SV) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. After its initial ascent into a parking orbit, the second stage of the Falcon 9 coasted for about 50 minutes before performing a final 44-second burn to place the GPS III SV05 spacecraft into its final deployment orbit.

The 8,550-pound (3,880-kilogram) GPS III SV05 was deployed about 90 minutes after leaving Florida. Ultimately, the spacecraft will use its own onboard engines to place it in its final 12,540-mile (20,180-kilometer) medium Earth orbit. SV05 is not only the first-ever USSF satellite launched on a previously flown booster, but also is the 24th military-code (M-code) satellite introduced to our constellation, the last needed to bring M-code to full operational capability. M-code is an encrypted, anti-jamming military GPS signal that provides the U.S. military and its allies with more-secure navigation solutions.

Under subcontract to SAIC, Celeris Systems had the honor of supporting this mission with the following Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) services:

• Satellite requirements & interface verification

• Mission Readiness Campaign scheduling

• Test asset utilization & de-confliction

• Satellite Developmental Evaluation Framework (DEF) Mission Readiness

• Independent Enterprise Assessment of mission readiness

• Post launch on-orbit checkout activities

SE&I relied on our digital engineering platform, iRIS, to support these activities throughout all phases of mission readiness.