Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
[Updated September 2, 2011] Amid White House efforts to keep a lid on the process and congressional hearings on the subject, the controversy surrounding LightSquared’s interference to GPS could compel the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to require another round of testing — this time of the wireless broadband company’s lower L-band frequencies.
By Inside GNSS
Now that Hurricane Irene and summer vacation have blown over, members of Congress are returning to Washington, D.C., to resume — among other things — addressing the question of LightSquared’s interference to GNSS.
A hearing originally scheduled for August 3 is back on the agenda for the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and now scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. on September 8.
By Inside GNSS
Command and control of the second GPS Block IIF satellite has been turned over to the 50th Space Wing’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOP) at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, today (August 22, 2011).
The Space and Missile Systems Center’s (SMC) GPS Directorate, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, retained control of the satellite during a 30-day on-orbit checkout period before the hand-off to 2 SOPS.
By Inside GNSS
Artist’s clay rendering of the USA Challenge “Oscar.” The five finalists will be awarded this statuette in bronze at ION GNSS 2011.Artist’s clay rendering of the USA Challenge “Oscar.” The five finalists will be awarded this stauette in bronze at ION GNSS 2011.Right now, six GNSS experts are poring over the GNSS spplications ideas and location-based services submitted to the 2011 USA Challenge, one of 23 regional contests in the European Satellite Navigation Competition.
By Inside GNSS
LightSquared has opened a new rhetorical front in its battle with the GPS community over the company’s efforts to convert L-band frequencies into terrestrial wireless broadband services: claiming in an August 11 letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that receiver manufacturers “chose to ignore” Department of Defense (DoD) standards.
In response, the Coalition to Save Our GPS, a group of GPS receiver manufacturers opposed to LightSquared’s plans, called the company’s filing an act of "desperation."
By Inside GNSS
Raytheon Corporation illustrationMembers of the Advanced Control Segment (OCX) team led by Raytheon Corporation are working through a series of issues that has delayed approval of a recent preliminary design review (PDR) on the key GPS modernization program.
By Inside GNSS
Do you use Topcon products in your daily life and work? If so, Topcon invites you to pick up your cell, your video camera or any other video recording device and show them what you do and how you do it.
Send in your two minute clip by October 1 – just point and shoot and upload, the company says.
By Inside GNSS
Find out more about 2011 USA Challenge applications ideas
Six judges — satellite navigation engineering experts from Stanford University, the Air Force Institute of Technology, Overlook Systems, NovAtel, KLA Global, the Institute of Navigation, and Inside GNSS — will select the finalists in the 2011 USA Challenge, one of 23 regional contests in this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC).
By Inside GNSS
What have we learned from the LightSquared fiasco?
Aside from the fact that someone gambling with other people’s money, with friends in high places benefiting from his largesse, can make the law stand on its head and our hair stand on end.
But then, we already knew that.
Just because the forces behind the broadband cellular company, Philip Falcone and Harbinger Investments, made their money by betting against the housing bubble doesn’t take away from the fact that they represent the same crew who helped take down the world economy in 2007.
By Inside GNSS
European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). ESA illustrationCiting European Space Agency (ESA) studies that showed “harmful interference” to Galileo receivers operating up to 1,000 kilometers from LightSquared base stations, a European Commission (EC) official has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about his “deep concerns” about the wireless broadband company’s terrestrial transmissions in the 1525–1559 MHz band next to L1 GNSS frequencies.
By Inside GNSS
Launch of GPS IIF-2. United Launch Alliance photo by Pat Corkery[updated July 16] Boeing has received the first on-orbit signals from the second of 12 GPS Block IIF satellites it is building for the U.S. Air Force. GPS IIF-2, renamed Space Vehicle Number 63 (SVN-63), is functioning normally and ready to begin on-orbit maneuvers and operational testing.
After two postponements, the second GPS Block IIF satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral at 2:41 a.m. EDT on July 16. A video of the launch was posted on YouTube and can be viewed here.
By Inside GNSS
