Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Prompted by a congressional footnote in the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act signed into law last month, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is soliciting public comment on American industry’s access to the Galileo program and related markets.
By Inside GNSS
Compass-G2 Launch, April 15, 2009 (Xinhua/Li Gang photo)Launch of a second modernized Compass (Beidou 2) satellite on April 14 — this one a geostationary spacecraft — marks the return of China to its GNSS launch program two years after the initial venture into space.
Designated Compass G2 — reflecting the geostationary nature of its intended orbital position about 22,300 miles above the equator, the satellite lifted off at 16:16 UTC aboard a Long March 3C rocket from the Xichang launch base in southwestern China’s Sichuan province, according to China’s state news agency Xinhua.
By Inside GNSS
European Court of Auditors, LuxembourgHere’s an interesting document: Preliminary observations on “The management of the Galileo programme’s development and validation phase,” adopted at its January 21–22 meeting by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
If you’re the kind of person who wakes up in a strange room after a night on the town and wonders how you got there, you’ll want to take in the full 50-page report and six addenda.
By Inside GNSS
(This story appears in the "GNSS World" department in the March-April 2009 issue of Inside GNSS.)
Munich’s high-level satnav summit the first week in March opened with a plenary titled, “The Worldwide Race in GNSS” and closed with a panel, “The Competition among the Big Four.”
By Inside GNSS
CSR imageMerger plans recently announced by CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) plc and SiRF Technology Inc. connote more than the evolving fortunes and common future of a Cambridge, UK–based Bluetooth and WiFi provider and a San Jose, California GPS manufacturer.
It reaffirms the emergence of mobile phone handsets as a dominant location platform, the convergence of wireless communications and positioning at the chip level, and the trend toward absorption by semiconductor manufacturers of independent GPS technology providers who offer only single-frequency solutions.
By Glen Gibbons
NavX-NCSBlaupunkt GmbH, a leading automotive electronics manufacturer, has selected the NavX-NCS multiconstellation, multifrequency GNSS simulator from IfEN GmbH as the GPS reference for production testing of its car navigation systems.
The NavX-NCS RF constellation simulator supports all present and planned Galileo and GPS frequencies (E1/L1, L2C, E5AB/L5, E6) in one box, now including the composite binary offset carrier (CBOC) signal structure for the Galileo Open Service on E1.
By Glen Gibbons
The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Thales Alenia Space Italia (TAS-Italia) two contracts for development of Galileo ground station receiver equipment.
One contract is for Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE) phase A/B ground station receivers capable of tracking the multiplex binary offset carrier (MBOC) signal that is common to both the Galileo Open Service (OS) and the new GPS L1 civil signal, which will be transmitted beginning with the GPS III generation of satellites.
By Glen Gibbons
The space agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has awarded IFEN GmbH a contract to upgrade the signal at the Galileo Test and Development Environment (GATE) in Berchtesgaden, Germany.
By Glen Gibbons
Günter HeinThe European Space Agency (ESA) has appointed Prof. Dr. Günter Hein to serve as Head of Galileo Operations and Evolution with duties in Noordwijk, Netherlands, and Paris, France.
With an initial four-year term beginning December 1, Hein will report directly to René Oosterlinck, ESA’s director of the Galileo program and navigation-related activities (D/GAL).
By Glen Gibbons
Blaupunkt, a leading supplier of automotive systems, has signed a “frame” agreement with u-blox to supply GPS and Galileo receiver technology for navigation, driver-assistance, and related in-vehicle systems.
By Glen Gibbons
Two new GPS modules based on the award-winning u-blox 5 engine and the NEO form factor — the NEO5D and NEO5G — have been announced by the Thalwil, Switzerland–based company.
By Glen Gibbons
Combined GPS + Galileo constellation. Image source: Nottingham Scientific Ltd., UKRepresentatives of the United States and the European Community (EC) meeting October 23 in Washington, D.C., reaffirmed their commitment to the 2004 cooperation agreement on Galileo and GPS in the first plenary session convened under the agreement.
By Glen Gibbons
Christine Edwards and Peter Hall of Sci-Tech Systems, Ltd.A UK start-up company, Sci-Tech Systems Ltd., gathered three prizes in the 2008 European Satellite Navigation Competition — including the overall Galileo Master Award — with a tracking system designed to help rescue persons who have fallen overboard from ships at sea.
By Glen Gibbons
