Scott Nicholas
Harris has shipped the third of 10 navigation payloads designed to help boost the accuracy, signal power and jamming resistance capacity of Global Positioning System III satellites Lockheed Martin is building for the U.S. Air Force.
Lockheed is scheduled to integrate the new payload into the GPS III Space Vehicle 3 this summer, Harris said Wednesday.
“We are now in full production and on target to deliver the fourth GPS III navigation payload to Lockheed Martin this fall,” said Bill Gattle, president of Harris’ space and intelligence systems business.
GPS III navigation payloads are designed to help extend the satellites’ life span and equipped with a mission data unit that connects atomic clocks, radiation-hardened computers and transmitters.
Lockheed integrated the second navigation payload from Harris into GPS III SV02 in May.
GPS III SV01Â has completed rigorous tests and will be kept in storage until the satellite’s launch sometime next year.
