Vice President Mike Pence announced this week that he will attend SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 rocket launch out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday, Dec. 18.
Pence made the announcement on Twitter Wednesday, Dec. 12, calling the mission to deploy the first satellite in the next generation of Global Positioning Systems an “important step forward as we seek to secure American leadership in space.”
The GPS III satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, will be carried to medium Earth orbit, around 12,600 miles high, by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It is expected to take off between 6:11 and 6:35 a.m. Pacific time.
Announced at @NASA today that next Tuesday I’ll head to “The World’s Premier Gateway to Space” at Cape Canaveral to watch @SpaceX launch the first @LockheedMartin GPS III satellite – an important step forward as we seek to secure American leadership in space. pic.twitter.com/kNz9K1Zdck
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) December 12, 2018
The launch can be watched here.
There is no indication that SpaceX will attempt to recover the first stage booster or the nose cone halves, known as fairings, something the company has prided itself on as a way to save money.
During its launch of a resupply mission to the International Space Station on Wednesday, Dec. 5, the booster malfunctioned while attempting to land back at the base and instead spun out of control into the water. Both the fairings and the booster were eventually recovered and brought back to the Florida coast.
It was a stark contrast to a string of successful landings on board drone ships and a base landing on Oct. 7 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, outside of Lompoc.
At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the same day SpaceX launches in Florida, United Launch Alliance will send a Delta 4-Heavy rocket out of Vandenberg on a mission to deliver a spy satellite into space. That launch, which was already postponed twice, is expected to create a light show for west coast viewers.