The Space Force has announced the launch date of the GPS 3 satellite which is supposed to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the end of this month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The Space and Missile Systems Center which is based in Los Angeles said that they want to minimize potential exposure of the Coronavirus to the launch crew.
Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson, SMC commander and program executive officer for space issued a statement in which he said:
“We do not make this decision lightly, however, given our GPS constellation remains strong, we have the opportunity to make a deliberate decision to maintain our mission assurance posture, without introducing additional health risk to personnel or mission risk to the launch.”
Inside Defense reported that Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond was talking with reporters on the subject today during an event, as he said that because the current GPS constellation in orbit is healthy and operational they could delay this launch.
“We have a very, very robust constellation on orbit. And so when we did that analysis and we looked at the number of people that would have to be on duty in a relatively small, constrained area, we’ve decided to shift that launch probably no earlier than the end of June,’’ said Raymond.
CNBC issued a report on Monday in which they said that six SpaceX employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
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