Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
[Updated January 3, 2012] China released a long-awaited “test version” interface control document (ICD) for its Compass (BeiDou-2) GNSS system today (December 27, 2011). The 11-page publication covers its open B1 civil signal centered at 1561.098 MHz.
By Inside GNSS
Raven Industries Electronic Systems Division has announced a new distributor relationship that will offer the company’s differential GPS (DGPS) products through NavtechGPS, of Springfield, Virginia.
Effective December 15, 2011, NavtechGPS began receiving and processing U.S. orders for Raven StarLink DGPS products, including line amplifiers, Raven Link timing & synchronization system, down/up converters, splitters, and antennas.
By Inside GNSS
The European Space Agency (ESA) has reported its first successful reception of triple-frequency signals from a Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) spacecraft.
The weekend of December 17 all Galileo signals were activated simultaneously for the first time across the European GNSS system’s three spectral bands, known as E1 (1559–1592 MHz), E5 (1164–1215 MHz), and E6 (1.215–1.300 MHz). The accompanying graphic displays the signals spectral profile.
By Inside GNSS
LightSquared today (December 21, 2011) asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to confirm the company’s right to use spectrum licensed to it and that commercial GPS manufacturers have no right to interference protection from LightSquared’s proposed wireless broadband network.
By Inside GNSS
Air Force Space Commander Gen. William Shelton at House Armed Services subcommittee hearingTests of LightSquared’s proposed wireless broadband transmissions in the lower LightSquared band (1526–1536 MHz) caused harmful interference to a majority of personal/general navigation GPS receivers.
By Inside GNSS
GPS III pathfinder satellite testbed. Lockheed Martin photoThe Lockheed Martin team developing the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation GPS satellites (GPS Block III) has delivered the program’s pathfinder spacecraft to the company’s Denver, Colorado–area facility.
The program remains on schedule for a 2014 launch of the first Block III space vehicle (SV).
By Inside GNSS
The PRN 11E5b autocorrelation function as monitored by TAS-I receiver (x axis represents chip spacing y, time in seconds).[Updated December 14, 2011] Today (December 12, 2011), the first of two Galileo IOV satellites launched October 21 began transmitting its payload signals.
Researchers at several European organizations have reported initial acquisition and tracking results of the E1 signals from the Galileo-ProtoFlight Model (PFM) satellite (previously incorrectly identified as Flight Model-2), also identified by its pseudorandom noise code (PRN 11).
By Inside GNSS
The European Commission has introduced free, downloadable and ready-to-use software tools to help anyone develop enhanced location and timing applications that harness the power of Europe’s European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).
EGNOS, which began operations earlier this year, provides real-time satellite-based corrections and integrity monitoring for GPS satellite signals.
By Inside GNSS
Paul Weissenberg of the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry directorateAfter years of arduous political navigation filled with delays and disappointments, Europe’s GNSS programs appear to have found firmer ground as it heads into a crucial deployment phase.
Today (November 30, 2011), the European Commission (EC) proposed a €7 billion (US$9.41 billion) allocation for Galileo and EGNOS in the European Union’s next budget cycle (2014–2020) and delegation of the programs “exploitation” to the European GNSS Agency (GSA) and the systems’ deployment, to the European Space Agency (ESA).
By Inside GNSS
A GPS app on a Japanese smartphone. The GPS Council there told the FCC that any signal degradation could jeopardize the Global Positioning System’s standing as a global standard.LightSquared has dropped, for now, efforts to expand its wireless broadband plans to markets in other countries, Inside GNSS has learned.
The Virginia firm was working this summer on proposals to the International Telecommunication Union, including one aimed at addressing compatibility issues between ground stations or “complementary ground components” of mobile satellite services and other frequency-using services.
By Inside GNSS
Russia launched a single GLONASS-M satellite into orbit on Monday (November 28, 2011) from the Plesetsk space center north of Moscow.
This is the fifth and the last launch of a GLONASS satellite this year, according to the Russian Federal Space Agency.
Typically, Russia launches three of the modernized satellites at a time on Proton rockets, including three GLONASS-Ms sent up November 4 from Baikonur, Kazahkstan, and placed in orbital plane 1. Monday’s launch used the smaller Soyuz rocket to place the satellite into plane 3.
By Inside GNSS
[Updated November 25 2011] For those wondering what to do on Black Friday …
In another holiday special, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced creation of a public web portal for documents related to the LightSquared/GPS interference issue that will , in the agency’s words, “provide ready access to publicly available documents and other responsive documents not otherwise exempt from release under the FOIA [ Freedom of Information Act].”
By Inside GNSS
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
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