A Boeing [NYSE: BA]-built Delta II rocket deployed a Global Positioning System satellite Monday for the U.S. Air Force. GPS IIR-9 was launched aboard a Delta II launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 5:09 p.m. EST.

The GPS system, operated by the Air Force Space Command, provides military and civilian users with location data in longitude, latitude and elevation as well as time and velocity information. The next scheduled Delta launch is the space infrared telescope facility mission for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in mid-April from Cape Canaveral aboard the first launch of the Delta II Heavy configuration.

Separately, Boeing said it would join the Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]/General Dynamics [NYSE: GD] team competing for the mobile user objective system (MUOS), a multi-satellite system that will improve ground communications for U.S. military forces on the move.

Selection of the final design for the MUOS system is scheduled for 2004, with initial operational capability expected in early 2008 and full capability by 2013. The U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, in San Diego, manages the program.