GPS III SV-10 'Hedy Lamarr' Launches — Final GPS III Satellite Deployed; JRTI Retires from Falcon Duty

SpaceX successfully launched GPS III Space Vehicle 10 — officially named 'Hedy Lamarr' after the Austrian-American actress who co-invented frequency-hopping spread spectrum, the foundational technology underlying GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth — at 2:53:25 a.m. EDT (06:53:25 UTC) on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Falcon 9 first stage B1095, flying its seventh mission, executed a nominal ascent and separated cleanly before executing an entry burn and precision landing on drone ship 'Just Read the Instructions' (JRTI) in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 8.5 minutes after liftoff. The GPS III SV-10 upper stage performed a single engine burn before deploying the satellite to medium Earth orbit (~20,200 km altitude) approximately 90 minutes after liftoff. GPS III SV-10 completes the GPS III constellation — 10 satellites built by Lockheed Martin under a $10+ billion program, delivering 3x the positional accuracy and 8x the anti-jamming capability of the legacy GPS Block IIF generation. It is the first GPS III satellite to carry an optical cross-link laser communications payload and a next-generation digital atomic clock — both technology demonstration payloads planned for the follow-on GPS IIIF series. The mission was originally scheduled to fly on United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan Centaur rocket but was switched to Falcon 9 in early 2026 due to Vulcan's ongoing development delays — the fourth GPS satellite transferred from Vulcan to Falcon 9. In a surprise announced during SpaceX's live broadcast, JRTI's landing on April 21 marked its final Falcon 9 recovery mission: SpaceX announced the vessel would be 'dedicated to Starship operations going forward,' pivoting to support liftoffs of the Super Heavy/Starship vehicle from Starbase, Texas. JRTI made 156 successful Falcon landings over its decade of service. SpaceX's 49th orbital launch of 2026.