Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The first GPS III satellite’s delivery will be delayed by four months because of a Lockheed Martin subcontractor’s failure to test a ceramic capacitor.
The satellite, which was expected to be delivered in August, is now scheduled for shipment in December, according to a Bloomberg news article.
By Inside GNSS
Littleton, Colorado-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems has received a $395 million U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center contract option to build two additional GPS III satellites. The contract option calls for long-lead and production hardware to manufacture GPS III space vehicles (SVs) 9 and 10.
“The GPS III SV 9 and 10 satellites are expected to be ready for launch in 2022, thus sustaining the GPS constellation,” said Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, Space and Missile Systems Center’s commander.
By Inside GNSS
The program to develop M-code capable receivers for military equipment is poised to enter a new phase this fall as the GPS Directorate seeks approval to start the engineering activities that will lead, ultimately, to full production.
By Dee Ann Divis
Air Force Space Commander Gen. John HytenSince Gen. John E. Hyten assumed leadership of Air Force Space Command in August 2014 he has been wrestling with a host of challenges including delays in the modernization programs for the GPS space segment and GPS military user equipment.
By Dee Ann Divis
The U.S. Air Force’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS) at the 50th Space Wing, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, has moved the longest-serving GPS satellite, space vehicle number (SVN) 23, into a disposal orbit several hundred miles above the operational GPS constellation.
The satellite, which was launched on November 26, 1990, had a rough start, the Air Force said. After early-orbit operations and initial stabilization in December 1990, SVN 23’s solar array stopped working.
By Inside GNSS
Col. Steve Whitney, GPS DirectorateA funding shortfall will not halt work on the new GPS ground system this month, although a decision expected in the next two weeks may signal major changes in the program.
Increased personnel costs on the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) program had eaten up the fiscal year 2016 budget and were poised to force managers to stop work on September 15. The Pentagon had requested Congress to allow $39 million to be reprogrammed to bridge the gap but lawmakers left for the summer recess without approving the change.
By Inside GNSS
Park rangers in Death Valley National Park have begun calling it “death by GPS.” Visitors faithfully following their navigation devices turn down the wrong road or hike away from help and die before rangers can reach them.
But it really isn’t the GPS, it’s the maps in their navigation system’s database.
By Dee Ann Divis
Because GPS and other GNSS are critical to the nation’s infrastructure, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is testing an augmentation system and developing new requirements to protect it, a DHS official told the U.S. Department of Transportations’s Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) meeting this week in Portland, Oregon.
How do you win when you are really losing?
Play a different game, move the goalposts, change the rules.
For several years now, a series of would-be wireless broadband service providers have been attempting to convince the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repurpose radio frequency spectrum near the GPS L1 band.
Past efforts have failed because of the transmissions’ demonstrated harmful effects on GPS and other GNSS signals. Now a new contender is trying to gain FCC’s approval by changing the way that those effects are measured.
By Inside GNSS
Furuno GV-86Furuno’s GV-86 GPS receiver chip with its dead-reckoning DR/GNSS module will be integrated into Clarion’s NXR16 car navigation systems for the auto-leasing and car rental industries.
The GV-86 features a dead-reckoning-enabled GNSS receiver, which receives concurrent GPS, SBAS, and QZSS satellite signals. The dead-reckoning capability allows the unit to provide positioning while receiving multiple GNSS signals in such harsh environments as tunnels, urban canyons and underground parking, the company said.
By Inside GNSS
A cooperative network of government labs, funded by a hopeful broadband company, is now testing GPS receivers in a surprise program that will draw key federal agencies directly into an argument over GPS interference standards.
By Dee Ann Divis
Reasonable Expectations of Privacy and a discussion of privacy in the United States typically begins with the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” In U.S. v Katz, the U.S. Supreme Court found that this Fourth Amendment protection created an individual’s constitutional right to privacy.
By Ingo Baumann
Already running out of money and facing a shut down, the program to develop a new GPS ground system could see its funding tied up for more than a month, perhaps closer to two months, due to wrinkles linked to the Nunn-McCurdy breach declared for the program at the end of June.
By Inside GNSS
