Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Hemisphere GPS has reported US$25.9 million in revenues for the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 56 percent from the year-earlier period (US$16.7 million) and a record for the company.
The company also reported record first quarter net income of $5.8 million, or $0.11, an increase of 169 percent compared to $2.2 million, or $0.05 per share, in the first quarter of 2007.
By Glen Gibbons
Spectrum Control, Inc., of Fairview, Pennsylvania, has designed a new single-element patch antenna that can receive and/or transmit two frequency bands — GPS and satellite communications — in one package.
The new antennas were developed for GPS applications using either Globalstar, for telephone and low-speed data communications, or Iridium’s voice and data communications. The frequencies cover 1575MHz (GPS) to 1615MHz (Globalstar) and 1575MHz (GPS) to 1621MHz (Iridium).
By Glen Gibbons
As speculated might occur, Lockheed Martin has joined the Northrop Grumman Corporation team competing for the GPS Next Generation Control Segment (OCX) Phase B contract. Lockheed had led its own team in the first round of competition that ended last November.
With Boeing as part of the other prospective OCX team headed by Raytheon Corporation, both companies with experience operating the GPS ground-based infrastructure are playing supporting roles for the contest to build the new control system.
By Glen Gibbons
Spirent Communications plc has announced that the Spirent UMTS Location Test System (ULTS) now supports full certification testing of 3G Partnership Project’s (3GPP) Assisted GPS (A-GPS) RF Minimum Performance test cases for both W-CDMA and GSM devices. With this latest capability, Spirent test equipment can support all A-GPS testing standards including RF performance, signaling conformance, and Secure User Plane (SUPL) Application Enabler, according to the company.
By Glen Gibbons
Santa Clara, California–based wireless/wired communications semiconductor manufacturer Atheros Communications, Inc., which acquired u-Nav Microelectronics last December, has announced its second-generation, single-chip GPS receiver, the AR1511, and companion ORION 3.0 software suite.
By Glen Gibbons
GPS III conceptual drawing, The Aerospace CorporationThe Air Force has further delayed the announcement of its decision on who will be the prime contractor for the next block of GPS satellites, IIIA. Earlier reports had set the contract award announcement for early April.
On Wednesday (April 23), Anthony Russo, deputy director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT), told a European Navigation Conference 2008 in Toulouse, France, that "source selection" has been identified. He added, "I had hoped to announce [the results] at this conference, but the process is not complete yet."
Source selection means that the GPS Wing at the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has completed its
evaluation of the bids on the contract and the preferred provider for the new generation of satellites. The Wing — responsible for overseeing the acquisition of GPS space, ground, and military user equipment — has a presentation ready on the IIIA contract award but is waiting to brief the Air Force decision maker, in this case, apparently Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.
NovAtel Inc. has launched its new GL1DE technology, the latest enhancement to the Calgary, Alberta, Canada–based company’s high-precision OEMV GNSS product line.
GL1DE is a relative pseudorange/delta-phase filter enhancement available in the coompany’s OEMV 3.400 firmware. The new technology is targeted for agricultural guidance applications in which pass-to-pass repeatability and elimination of position “jumps” is critical.
By Glen Gibbons
Hemisphere GPS has released an OEM development kit for its Eclipse dual-frequency GPS receiver technology.
Development kits allow product designers and system integrators to more easily access and test all of the available features on an Eclipse board, simplifying the effort needed to reach a proof of concept and shortening the time required to bring a product to market.
By Glen Gibbons
The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a contract to IfEN GmbH to develop a “New Generation” receiver breadboard for use at the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) Ranging and Integrity Monitoring Stations (RIMS).
The RIMS New Generation breadboard will be capable of receiving the new L2C and L5 signals, the Galileo E1, E5ab, and E6 signals and the GLONASS L1 signal in addition to GPS L1 and L2P signals.
By Glen Gibbons
TI NavLink 6.0Texas Instruments’s (TI’s) announcement of its NaviLink 6.0 (NL5500) with integrated GPS, Bluetooth, and FM may presage the company’s expanded focus for application markets beyond cell phone handsets.
By Glen Gibbons
The U.S. State Department and the National Coordination Office (NCO) for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) are soliciting participation from the GPS industry in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization’s GNSS Innovation Summit and the 12th GNSS Implementation Team (GIT) Meeting to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in May.
The Innovation Summit takes place May 26–27, followed by the GIT meeting May 28–30.
By Glen Gibbons
The Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) program has been salvaged from the political limbo in which it has resided for more than a year.
Following completion of an assessment by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT), the agency has decided to continue full NDGPS operations. Currently, 86 stations are operating with support from three federal agencies: the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG, 39 sites), the Army Corps of Engineers (9 site), and the DoT (38 sites operated and maintained by the USCG under contract).
By Glen Gibbons
ATV Docking with International Space Station, NASA imageEurope’s Jules Verne Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV) that docked Thursday (April 3) at the International Space Station (ISS) is operating with a guidance, navigation control (GNC) system based on a GPS receiver developed by Thales Alenia Space Italia (TASI).
The GNC unit provides accurate position and velocity information for the ATV orbit control and rendezvous operation with the ISS. The Jules Verne completed its first space cargo voyage — 25 days long — docking the 10,470-kilogram (23,034-pound) ATV with the station, orbiting the Earth at 28,000 kilometers per hour.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), this docking marks the beginning of Jules Verne’s main servicing mission to deliver cargo, propellant, water, oxygen and propulsion capacity to the station, as well as ESA’s entry into the restricted club of the partners able to access the orbital facility by their own means.
By Glen Gibbons
