GPS

Gen. Hyten: Raytheon’s OCX the Best Bet for New GPS Ground System

Gen. Hyten: Raytheon’s OCX the Best Bet for New GPS Ground System

Air Force Space Commander Gen. John Hyten at subcommittee hearing

While acknowledging the fury over problems with the new GPS ground system, the head of Air Force Space Command told lawmakers this month that finishing the program with the current contractor was the best way forward.

That contactor, Raytheon, is years behind on the Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX), a project whose price tag may now top $4 billion.

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By Inside GNSS
Up in the AIRR
March 28, 2016

Up in the AIRR

Anyone who has sat through several iterations of a slide presentation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a better way to do things.

As speakers flip through an exhaustively vetted series of PowerPoint slides, squeezing out a new bullet point or two from one version to the next six months later, watching paint dry seems like a more productive — and briefer — use of one’s time. The agency sometimes brings a whole new meaning to the concept of geological time.

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By Dee Ann Divis
GNSS Hotspots | March 2016

GNSS Hotspots | March 2016

One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder.
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST

Dangerous Games in Rio, Animal Trackers, Chinese Logistics and The Radiation Club

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By Inside GNSS
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How Privatizing Air Traffic Control Could Affect Satellite Navigation’s Role in Aviation
March 18, 2016

How Privatizing Air Traffic Control Could Affect Satellite Navigation’s Role in Aviation

The satellite-based NextGen program is in trouble — no question about it.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic modernization effort will likely cost triple its original $40-billion program budget and need an extra decade — until 2035 or beyond — to reach completion, according to 2014 testimony by Department of Transportation (DoT) Inspector General Calvin Scovel.

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By Dee Ann Divis
OriginGPS Shrinks Multi-GNSS Module
March 16, 2016

OriginGPS Shrinks Multi-GNSS Module

OriginGPS has launched its Multi Micro Spider multi-GNSS module, which features a 5.6 x 5.6-millimeter footprint and 2.65-millimeter height.

Like its predecessor, the Multi Micro Hornet (which measured 10 x 10 x 6.1 millimeters), the ORG4033 uses MediaTek’s MT3333 and is positioned for applications that require minimal power consumption and ultra-small form factors, ranging from wearables to drones. Unlike the Hornet, the Multi Micro Spider supports Europe’s Galileo system as well as GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou.

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By Inside GNSS
Air Force Considers Shifting GPS III Ground Control to Enterprise Ground Services

Air Force Considers Shifting GPS III Ground Control to Enterprise Ground Services

As the contractor for the new GPS ground system works its way through a make-or-break 90-day evaluation period, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) is weighing whether it should look at leapfrogging past that program and shifting control of the newest GPS satellites to a new common ground system for Air Force space assets.

The Next-Generation Operational Control System or OCX, currently under development by Raytheon, is essential to integrating the GPS III satellites into the U.S. GNSS constellation and operating them at their full potential.

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By Inside GNSS
PNT ExCom to Write Requirements for GPS Backup
March 15, 2016

PNT ExCom to Write Requirements for GPS Backup

Harold Martin, director of National Coordination Office for PNT, at Munich SatNav Summit 2016

Addressing a long-unfulfilled presidential mandate, the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Executive Committee (ExCom) has taken on reponsibility for initiating a process to identify and develop requirements for a complementary national PNT, in effect, a backup system to GPS in case of outages from natural or man-made events.

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By Inside GNSS
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GNSS Leaders Reveal Plans at Munich Summit

GNSS Leaders Reveal Plans at Munich Summit

Representatives of the world’s GNSS providers outlined the current plans and progress of their systems at the 2016 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit in Germany.

BeiDou has entered its transition period from Phase II to Phase III, with test and validation of the next phase with its new signal structures and frequencies taking place through the second half of 2017, said Jun Shen, deputy director for International Research at the China Satellite Navigation Office. In the meantime, “there will be a coexisting of Phase II/III BeiDou signals.

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By Inside GNSS
U.S. Administration, Congress Continue to Underfund Civil GPS Signal Monitoring
February 29, 2016

U.S. Administration, Congress Continue to Underfund Civil GPS Signal Monitoring

The civil GPS community is facing a significant federal funding cut in the midst of programmatic shifts and political squalls that make the long-term outlook murkier than usual.

President Obama’s recently released 2017 budget proposal calls for $847.362 million in Department of Defense (DoD) funds but only $10 million in Department of Transportation (DoT) funds to sustain and modernize the civil GPS services, including monitoring of civil GPS signals.

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By Inside GNSS
Fate of OCX Program May Be Decided within a Few Months
February 24, 2016

Fate of OCX Program May Be Decided within a Few Months

Under Secretary of Defense Frank Kendall, U.S. Air Force photo/Michael J. Pausic

A decision on cancelling at least some of the modernized GPS ground control system contract could be made within a matter of months and certainly before President Obama leaves office, the Pentagon’s senior acquisition official said today (February 23, 2016).

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By Inside GNSS
GPS III Budget Slashed as Air Force Shifts Money to Fix Delayed OCX
February 15, 2016

GPS III Budget Slashed as Air Force Shifts Money to Fix Delayed OCX

With a stopgap fix under contract and a bump-up in next year’s budget request on the table the Air Force appears intent on sticking with its plan to continue work on a new GPS ground system despite dismay over repeated delays.  

The White House has asked for $393.3 million for the Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) for fiscal year 2017 (FY17). Though that number is a 12 percent increase over the $350.2 million approved for FY16, it is effectively a placeholder and may grow.

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By Inside GNSS
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