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Delta rocket takes GPS satellite into orbit

Story ID 03-079
April 02, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Air Force Space Command News Service
Courtesy of 45th Space Wing Public Affairs

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. -- A Delta II, carrying a Global Positioning System satellite, launches from Cape Canaveral, Fla., March 31. The GPS system provides precise 24-hour navigational latitude, longitude, altitude, velocity and precise time information. In the first six days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, more than 80 percent of the munitions that hit several thousand targets were precision-guided. A GPS satellite emits a continuous navigation signal and orbits Earth every 12 hours. The system is so accurate that time can be figured to within 25 billionths of a second, velocity within a fraction of a mile per hour and location to within 16 meters, or about 52 feet. (Photo by Carlton Bailie, the Boeing Company)