Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
GPS IIF-4 logo. United Launch AllianceThe fourth GPS Block IIF satellite, space vehicle number (SVN) 66, was launched successfully today (May 15, 2013) on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 5:38 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.
It was the first time that an Atlas V had been used to launch a GPS spacecraft.
By Inside GNSS
System engineers across the country may soon be planning, in some cases perhaps for the first time, what they would do if they could not use the GPS service.
The effort is part of an expanded White House initiative to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure. Alhough infrastructure protection programs have been under way for some time, they did not necessarily address GPS vulnerabilities explicitly.
By Inside GNSS
Existing methods for improving the GNSS performance commonly attempt to enhance the signal processing and navigation estimation parts of a single receiver. Such approaches, however, leave unexplored the potential benefits inherent to the integration of data from multiple receivers.
By Inside GNSS
Gen. William Shelton. DoD photoThe Air Force will decide this fall whether to build more GPS III satellites or move to a new generation of spacecraft, the leader of Air Force Space Command told Congress last week.
“We’re on contract right now . . . through (GPS III) satellite vehicle number eight. Satellite vehicles nine and beyond – the acquisition strategy for that – will be debated in the fall,” General William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), told the House Armed Services Committee on April 25.
By Inside GNSS
DoD CIO Teresa Takai. DoD photoA Department of Defense Directive (DoDD 5144.02) issued April 22 clarifies the positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) responsibilities for Teresa Takai, the assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration (NII) and the DoD’s chief information officer (CIO).
By Inside GNSS
PhoneSat. NASA imageET may have an improved method to phone home and satellite operators, a new way to position and control satellites — smartphones in space.
By Inside GNSS
Projected accuracy and coverage of Korea’s eLoran network. Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of KoreaGPS jamming attacks from North Korea that have increased in frequency and duration since they began August 2010 have prompted the South Korean government to implement an enhanced Loran (eLoran) systems that will cover the entire country by 2016.
The South Korean government completed design, development, and construction documents for the eLoran system in February and will procure the system infrastructure through international competitive bidding.
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), is seeking public comments on the current and future user needs for the Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS).
By Inside GNSS
Spending pressures on the Pentagon seem to be coming from every direction, and the GPS program appears unlikely to avoid them entirely.
The growing needs of veterans are poised to force up health care budgets and higher transportation costs and operating tempos have dug a $22 billion-hole in the accounts for Overseas Contingency Operations in places such as Afghanistan.
By Inside GNSS
GPS signal side lobes. When the European Space Agency launched its Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element-A (GIOVE-A) satellite in 2005, its main mission was to transmit Galileo test signals that secured the system’s frequencies, evaluate hardware under space environmental conditions, and so forth.
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety will use Locata positioning to control automated testing of frontal collision avoidance and other safety systems. IIHS imageIn announcing the selection of its terrestrial positioning system as the core PNT technology for the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Vehicle Research Center (VRC), Locata Corporation has opened up a new front in its campaign to augment or replace GNSS in application environments where the latter technology is unreliable or unavailable.
By Inside GNSS
Smithsonian staff prepare Ramsden sextant for mounting at Time and Navigation exhibit. Photo by Dee Ann DivisThanks to an accident of renovation, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space museum is now the home to a substantial new exhibit that opened today (April 12, 2013), “Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There.”
By Inside GNSS
A redesign of the GPS satellites under development by Lockheed Martin will add a signal waveform generator, search and rescue payload, laser retroreflector array (LRA), and dual-launch capability beginning with Space Vehicle 9 (SV09).
By Inside GNSS
