On April 21, 2026, the tenth and final GPS Block III satellite reached medium Earth orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9. Named for Hedy Lamarr, the actress whose 1942 frequency-hopping patent underpins modern GPS, SV10 closes a procurement that took eight years to deliver hardware and opens the optical-crosslink era that will define the constellation's next decade.
The laser-based crosslinks that turn Starlink into a mesh, anchor the SDA Transport Layer, and just made their GPS debut on GPS III SV10 - quietly rewriting how data moves through space.
On April 17, 2026, the U.S. Space Force officially cancelled the Next Generation Operational Control System after sixteen years of development, cost overruns, and testing failures. The $8 billion program was supposed to unlock the military's encrypted GPS signal. Instead, the satellites are flying with capabilities the ground can't command.
Pentagon's DIU seeks commercial partners for GEO spy satellites. SpaceX unveils space traffic management system. Bahamas rocket landings resume. GPS III falls short in modern warfare.
