Jim Sponnick: ULA Achieves 50th Atlas V Mission With 8th USAF GPS Satellite

United Launch Alliance has launched the latest global positioning system satellite to join the on-orbit constellation that will provide timing and navigation services for a U.S. Air Force program.

The company said Wednesday that an Atlas V 401 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle carried the GPS IIF-8 satellite to space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president for the Atlas and Delta programs, noted that this launch is Atlas V’s 50th space mission.

It is also ULA’s 12th launch this year and eighth in a series of 24 satellites to provide worldwide GPS services in the future, the company said.

ULA’s next launch is the Orion spacecraft under the Lockheed Martin–NASA Delta IV Heavy Exploration Flight Test mission on Dec. 4.