Ahead of Falcon 9’s upcoming launch of GPS III-4, the United States Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) announced today an agreement with SpaceX to recover the first stage booster and, for the first time on a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) mission, launch previously flown boosters on future GPS missions. SpaceX is proud to leverage its flight-proven capabilities toward national security space launch missions.
SpaceX was also recently selected by the Space Force to carry out critical National Security Space Launch (NSSL) missions ordered over the next five years. SpaceX will build upon our years-long collaboration with the United States Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office to utilize the operationally mature Falcon fleet, which has achieved NSSL certification and completed a combined 95 orbital missions to date for a variety of customers. With Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is capable of performing every type of national security space mission, to every required reference orbit, with significant performance and schedule margin.