It took five tries, working through technical issues, severe weather and even the pressure of a vice presidential visit until a SpaceX rocket cut through clear skies Sunday on the way to space.
The company's first national security launch posed some challenges this week as SpaceX dealt with a multitude of issues while trying to launch a major GPS satellite for the Air Force from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's launch pad 40.
SpaceX was scheduled to launch Tuesday, while Vice President Mike Pence looked on from Kennedy Space Center. But an issue detected by the Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage sensors scrapped the launch. It was scrubbed again Wednesday, with teams taking more time to look into the problem.
And Thursday, severe weather and a tornado watch stopped the launch. Despite better weather Saturday, strong upper-level winds still got in the way, causing yet another scrub.
Pence waved off the scrub Tuesday, saying it's not his "first rodeo" at a launch and emphasizing that safety is the priority. The vice president was in Florida to announce that President Donald Trump had ordered the creation of a Space Command, a unified combatant command to provide control of all military space operations. The administration is also moving forward with plans to develop a new independent branch of the military called Space Force.
Military operations were also at the heart of Sunday's launch. The high-profile payload heading into medium Earth orbit, 10,900 nautical miles above the planet, was the Air Force's GPS III, the first in a new generation of GPS satellites.
The satellite is one in a series of 10 third-generation satellites ordered by the Air Force with three times better accuracy, eight times improved anti-jamming capabilities, 25 percent longer spacecraft lifespan and the capability to broadcast signals compatible with other international global navigation systems, including Europe's Galileo.
Built by Lockheed Martin, the satellite could eventually be one of as many as 32 satellites that the Air Force may order over the coming years to modernize its current satellite constellation.
