Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The Allerheiligen-Hofkirche, site of the 2008 Munich Summit plenaryAs it prepares for its sixth annual conference, the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit continues to hone its identity as a genuine "summit," the place for high-level political, military, and corporate leaders to discuss all of the GNSS systems from a strategic perspective.
By Inside GNSS
Block IIF satellite undergoing tests at Space & Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, CaliforniaHaving successfully passed its initial phase of tests at the Space & Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, the first GPS Block IIF (follow-on generation) satellite is expected to enter the second round of thermal vacuum testing in late March, according to the GPS Wing.
On December 24, the GPS IIF program completed the first of two phases of thermal vacuum testing on the first IIF space vehicle (SV-1) built by The Boeing Company. This was "a major success for the program," in the words of GPS Wing officials. Thermal-vac tests exposed the spacecraft to extreme hot and cold temperatures under vacuum conditions to verify system performance and correlate the thermal models, according to the GPS Wing.
By Glen Gibbons
The GPS constellation, as illustrated 30 years ago.While awaiting the arrival of the definitive history of the Global Positioning System, students of the premier GNSS program might want to take a look at a systems engineering case study released last month by the Center for Systems Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
By Glen Gibbons
Enhanced Paveway IIRaytheon Company received more than $150 million worth of contracts in December for its Paveway family of precision-guided munitions. The latest figures bring the total Paveway year-to-date bookings for 2007 to more than $300 million, a record for Raytheon’s Paveway program.
The contracts are a combination of direct commercial sales and foreign military sales and will provide customers in Europe and Asia with the Enhanced Paveway II (EP2) and the EP3 variants of the Paveway weapon system, which upgrade "dumb bombs" into precision-guided munitions.
By Glen Gibbons
Abstracts for the 2008 International Symposium on GPS/GNSS are due on Monday, June 16.
This year, the conference, which rotates throughout the Asia-Pacific region, will take place in Tokyo, Japan from November 11 through November 14.
Presenters who choose to have their papers refereed and published in the proceedings must submit their full papers with payment by July 15. Non-refereed papers must be submitted by September 15.
Authors will be notified of acceptance by July 31.
By Inside GNSS
Organizers of the Defense Department’s 2008 Joint Navigation Conference have extended the abstract submission deadline to Friday, January 18. You still have time to send your one-page unclassified proposal to the track chairs listed at this site:
http://www.jointnavigation.org/conference/?page=14
When last heard from, the intrepid Pacific Northwest production team that gave us the very first GPS movie had just wrapped, and were on their way to Hollywood to pitch the product. (See our story in the September 2006 edition of Inside GNSS.)
By Inside GNSS
What may be the first domestically produced, consumer-oriented GLONASS-GPS receiver, sold out shortly after their introduction in Russia’s Ion retail stores.
The Glospace SGK-70 features a 12-channel GLONASS receiver and a 20-channel GPS receiver, which can reportedly use either or both systems simultaneously. Designed primarily for in-vehicle use, the 7.4×4.7×1.2-inch unit incorporates Samsung components has an SD/MMC slot and comes with a 512MB card that includes detailed maps of the Moscow area.
By Glen Gibbons
The Raytheon Company has announced that it successfully completed the final system acceptance test to augment standard GPS signals over India.
GAGAN stands for GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation-Technology Demonstration System. It monitors GPS satellite signals for errors and then generates correction messages to improve positioning accuracy for users.
By Glen Gibbons
A 25-year (2007-2032) U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) roadmap for unmanned systems reflects the critical contribution of GPS technology in a growth area for tactical military systems that are simultaneously seeking a compatible place in civil applications and the national air space.
By Glen Gibbons
NXP Semiconductors has announced plans to acquire GloNav Inc., a US-based fabless GNSS semiconductor company, for $85 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, subject to regulatory approvals.
According to NXP, the company plans on integrating GloNav’s GPS technology with NXP’s expertise in Bluetooth, FM radio, and USB “to offer a broader connectivity suite to the mobile phone market.”
By Glen Gibbons
The U.S. Air Force launched the fifth modernized GPS Block II Replenishment (IIR-M) satellite at 3:04 p.m. EST (20:04 UTC) December 20 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, (December 20) aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. Air Force controllers set the spacecraft to "healthy" status on January 2, in what is probably a record time of 13 days.
By Glen Gibbons
The U.S. Air Force has exercised new options on contracts with three companies for development of GPS Modernized User Equipment (MUE) for future military applications.
Under the new awards, Raytheon will receive $65 million; Rockwell Collins, $50.7 million; and L-3/Interstate Electronics Corporation, $36 million. All options were awarded on or about October 19.
By Glen Gibbons
