The third in a new line of upgraded Global Positioning System navigation satellites flew aboard the Falcon 9 rocket, adding fresh capabilities to the GPS network while replacing an aging spacecraft launched more than 20 years ago.

Nearly 90 minutes after liftoff, the Falcon 9’s upper stage precisely released the GPS 3 SV03 satellite into an on-target transfer orbit ranging in altitude between around 250 miles (400 kilometers) and 12,550 miles (20,200 kilometers), with an inclination of 55 degrees to the equator.

Here’s a replay of the Falcon 9 launch with the GPS 3 SV03 satellite.

The first two GPS 3-series satellites launched in December 2018 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and last August aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 booster.

The Space Force has reserved the next three GPS 3-series satellite launches with SpaceX.

Flying 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) over the Pacific Ocean, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has deployed the US military’s GPS 3 SV03 navigation satellite into an on-target orbit.

Tuesday’s launch also marked the first time military officials allowed SpaceX to reserve enough propellant on the rocket to land the Falcon 9’s first stage booster after a launch of a high-priority national security payload.

The Falcon 9 booster touched down on SpaceX’s drone ship “Just Read The Instructions” positioned around 400 miles (630 kilometers) northeast of Cape Canaveral in the Atlantic Ocean.

The launch profile adjustment to make landing of the Falcon 9 booster possible ended up saving “several million dollars” for the military from the original SpaceX launch contract value of $96.5 million, according to Walter Lauderdale, mission director for the GPS SV03 launch from the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center.

On SpaceX’s first launch of a GPS navigation satellite in December 2018, military officials required the launch company to devote all of the Falcon 9 rocket’s capacity to placing the spacecraft into orbit.

That meant SpaceX could not install landing legs on the Falcon 9’s first stage or attempt recovery of the booster.

It was the first high-priority national security payload to launch on a SpaceX rocket, and it was also the first satellite in a new design of GPS spacecraft.

One change to the Falcon 9 rocket for the GPS SV03 mission was a gray band of thermal insulation on the launcher’s upper stage.

The company has experimented with long-duration coasts of the Falcon upper stage to gather data before the first dedicated launch of a national security payload on SpaceX’s triple-core Falcon Heavy rocket late this year.

Military engineers charged with overseeing the design and production of SpaceX rockets for national security missions assessed numerous configuration changes since the Falcon 9’s first launch of a GPS satellite in 2018.

Space Force officials have not yet approved SpaceX to launch critical military satellites — a mission class known as National Security Space Launch payloads — using previously-flown boosters.

“I can’t commit to when we’ll be ready,” he said Friday, referring to when the military could launch a national security payload on a reused Falcon 9 booster.

SpaceX is building an all-new Falcon Heavy rocket for a national security launch late this year, and the company is expected to use a brand new booster for the next GPS launch no earlier than Sept.

With the GPS launch behind them, SpaceX teams on Florida’s Space Coast will again turn their attention to launching a Falcon 9 rocket pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with the next batch of SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites

A launch hazard area warning notice released Tuesday for sailors off Florida’s Space Coast suggested the next Falcon 9/Starlink launch has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 8

Timeline for Falcon 9’s launch of the GPS 3 SV03 spacecraft