USSF-106

Maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur VC4S, the first Vulcan variant to fly with four solid rocket boosters, and the rocket's first National Security Space Launch mission after two certification flights.

It carried NTS-3, an experimental navigation satellite from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), built to run more than 100 technology tests from geosynchronous orbit over a planned two-year experimental phase. The satellite combines a reprogrammable software architecture spanning spacecraft, ground control and user receivers, an advanced atomic clock, and CHIMERA, a system designed to detect and defend against GPS spoofing.