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ir Force and contractor space personnel at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., launched a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket on Dec. 20, successfully boosting a new Global Positioning System satellite into orbit. It is the fifth GPS IIR-M satellites launched into orbit. Mark Wilkins, vice president of ULA’s Delta Programs, said, “With the launch of GPS IIR-18(M), ULA completes a tremendously successful first year of operation and demonstrates its commitment to 100 percent mission success.” ULA is a merger of launch services of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The mission marked the 56th consecutive successful launch overseen by the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles. (Read more about GPS-IIR-18 mission.)
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.