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Environment

June 15, 2017

White House Boosts GPS Budget, GPS III Procurement Decision Still Pending

Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, the director of space programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition. Photo courtesy of Air Force.

The White House is asking Congress to boost overall funding for the GPS program back over $1 billion, with the largest infusion of new money earmarked to cover the cost growth of the Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX).

If approved, overall spending on the GPS program would reach $1.09 billion in fiscal year 2018 (FY18) with funding for OCX surging to $510.94 million from the $393.27 million allocated by Congress for FY17.

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By Dee Ann Divis
June 8, 2017

Two More Satellites Formally Added to Galileo’s Satnav System

Two further satellites — increasing the total number to 16 — have formally become part of Europe’s Galileo satnav system, broadcasting timing and navigation signals worldwide while also picking up distress calls across the planet.

These are the 15th and 16th satellites to join the network, two of the four Galileos that were launched together by Ariane 5 last November, and the first additions to the working constellation since the start of Galileo Initial Services in December.

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By Inside GNSS
June 4, 2017

GNSS Hotspots | June 2017

One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder.
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST

1. RESCUE DRONE
Noordwijk, Netherlands
√ Inspired by the refugee crisis, Dutch start-up Avy has been working on robust, long-duration drones capable of detecting people in distress and, if necessary, dropping life jackets, life buoys, food and medicine. The rescue drone can take off from a boat or the shore, carrying among other items, a cylinder that contains a large deployable rescue buoy, which not only can keep refugees afloat but indicates its location to boats in the vicinity.

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By Inside GNSS
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May 29, 2017

Get Galileo on Board

For several years the European Union (EU) has sought a waiver for its Galileo system from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licensing requirements — the so-called Part 25 rule to operate in this country.

Long-overdue approval of the request should be expedited by the FCC.

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By Inside GNSS
April 10, 2017

Debate Continues on ATC Privatization 

Discussions continue on the pros and cons surrounding the possible privatization of the nation’s Air Traffic Control (ATC), with opponents sharing concerns and a proposal by President Trump aimed at looking into taking the air operations duties away from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

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By Inside GNSS
April 1, 2017

Galileo Success, Flexibility, and a Look Ahead

Miguel Manteiga Bautista

The first generation of the Galileo Program, at satellite and ground segment level, has been “an enormous success,” according to Miguel Manteiga Bautista, who recently spoke with Inside GNSS at his office at the European Space Agency’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

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By Inside GNSS
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March 20, 2017

New Research Says Turbulence Not to Blame for GNSS Outages During Northern Lights

Last week, researchers at the University of Bath in England announced findings indicating for the first time that turbulence does not take place within the Northern Lights and instead that unknown mechanisms are responsible for the outages of GNSS. This research concludes that new technology can be developed to overcome these outages from the Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis.

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By Inside GNSS
March 9, 2017

Spirent Test Solutions Help to Improve Maritime Safety

ACR’s ResQLink+ Buoyant Personal Locator Beacon.

Spirent Communications plc this week announced its test solutions have been used to improve maritime safety, and this development came about after much collaborative work designed to ensure that GNSS receivers are performing as needed, especially for rescue operations at sea.

Working with the Radio Technical Committee for Maritime Services (RTCM), Spirent has created test scenarios that simulate realistic satellite reception conditions at sea so that GPS distress beacon performance can be improved, allowing users to be rescued faster by search and rescue organizations.

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By Inside GNSS
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