SpaceX, Northrop seek to break launch gremlin curse with Friday night attempts

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  A Falcon 9 rocket is ready to go on Friday ahead of an evening launch attempt. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann for Ars ]

SpaceX has a big launch on tap for this evening, delivering a valuable satellite into orbit for the US Space Force. With a liftoff time of 9:43pm ET (01:43 UTC Saturday), the company's Falcon 9 rocket is due to deliver a fourth GPS III satellite into geostationary transfer orbit. Weather conditions look good, with a 70 percent chance of "go" conditions.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the GPS III satellites were designed to modernize the current Global Positioning System constellation, providing three times greater accuracy and improved anti-jamming capabilities. This mission will launch on a new Falcon 9 first stage, but SpaceX and the Space Force have reached an agreement that will allow future GPS missions to launch on flight-proven rockets.

While the payload is important, perhaps more intriguing this evening in Florida will be whether this mission actually gets off the launch pad. The last week has seen a succession of US launch attempts canceled for issues primarily related to ground systems.

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