A: System Categories

China Plans Dual Launches of Compass-BeiDou MEOs
April 6, 2012

China Plans Dual Launches of Compass-BeiDou MEOs

News sources indicate that the first Beidou-2 dual launch will take place in April or possibly May. A Long March 3B rocket will carry two middle Earth orbiting (MEO) satellites (M3 and M4) into orbit.

In addition to being the first dual launch of Compass satellites, this will be the first launch of MEO spacecraft since April 14, 2007, when the Chinese GNSS program put the initial second-generation BeiDou satellite into orbit. So far, Compass M1 is the only MEO satellite in the BeiDou-2 constellation.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
GNSS Hotspots | March 2012
March 31, 2012

GNSS Hotspots | March 2012

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

1. DEAD IN THE WATER
San Francisco, California and Washington D.C., USA

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
[uam_ad id="183541"]
China Will Launch Five Compass /BeiDou Satellites in 2012

China Will Launch Five Compass /BeiDou Satellites in 2012

Beidou control room

Compass/BeiDou-2, China’s GNSS program will launch 5 satellites this year to join the 11 already in orbit, according to Li Xing, a representative of the China Satellite Navigation Office. This will support a planned declaration of initial operational capability (IOC) for a regional system covering 84˚E to 160˚E and 55˚S to 55˚N, he said at the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit in March.

The rapid development of the Chinese system was refelcted in the allocation of its own session during this year’s Summit, the most important GNSS policy gathering in Europe.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
EU's Galileo and EGNOS Expect 2014-2020 Budget Boost of $9.1 billion

EU’s Galileo and EGNOS Expect 2014-2020 Budget Boost of $9.1 billion

Galileo IOT L-Band antenna at Redu Center in Belgium (ESA photo)

The European GNSS program expects to gain an additional €7 billion (US$9.1 billion) budget for 2014–2020 to support Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), a satellite-based augmentation system that currently provides differential corrections to GPS signals, according to Paul Flament, Galileo and EGNOS program manager for the European Commission. He spoke at the 2012 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit that ended on March 15.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
GLONASS Plans 30 Satellites, Complete Augmentation System and Improved OCX by 2020

GLONASS Plans 30 Satellites, Complete Augmentation System and Improved OCX by 2020

Sergey Revnivykh, GLONASS program, Roscosmos

GLONASS completed its long trek back to full operational capability with 24 operational satellites in the constellation last December, but Russia intends to keep pushing ahead with its GNSS, said Roscosmos official Sergey Revnivykh at the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit in March.

GLONASS now has a 347 billion ruble (US$11.81 billion) budget approved through 2020, by which time the system is scheduled to have 24 satellites transmitting both the new CDMA and legacy FDMA signals.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
Rohde & Schwarz GNSS Simulator Gains P-Code, GLONASS
March 29, 2012

Rohde & Schwarz GNSS Simulator Gains P-Code, GLONASS

Rohde & Schwarz SMBV100A vector signal generator/GNSS simulator

Rohde & Schwarz, based in Munich, Germany, has launched two extensions to the GNSS simulator in its SMBV100A vector signal generator: GLONASS and GPS P-code capability.

The SMBV100A already had the capability to generate a range of GPS and Galileo civil signals as well as wireless standards, including GSM/EDGE, 3GPP with HSPA, LTE, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
[uam_ad id="183541"]
Satellite Development Advances as GPS Survives Budget Cuts, LightSquared

Satellite Development Advances as GPS Survives Budget Cuts, LightSquared

New GPS III Test Chamber (Lockheed Martin photo)

The United States GPS program is without doubt the elder statesman of GNSS, but it has had some close calls recently.

At the 2012 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit in March, a high-level Department of Transportation offical and the head of the Air Force GPS Directorate hailed continuing progress on the Global Positioning System’s third-generation satellite development and next-generation control segment (OCX), while apparently escaping — relatively unscathed — the dual perils of Congressional budget cuts and LightSquared interference.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
Arrow Prev
March 27, 2012

Galileo GNSS Through Children’s Eyes

Galileo by Irina of Romania

[Updated March 27] We see lots of graphs, schemata, renderings and photographic images of the GNSS satellites and constellations. Perhaps it’s time to rest the eyes with imaginative images of space and satellites through the eyes of children.

Over a number of years, up to 30 of Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites are expected to reach orbit and each of them will be named after a child from one of the 27 European Union countries.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
UrsaNav Tests eLoran, LF Timing Potential
March 26, 2012

UrsaNav Tests eLoran, LF Timing Potential

UrsaNav LF transmitter site for timing synchronization trials

Virginia-based engineering firm UrsaNav Inc. has begun transmitting a variety of low frequency (LF) test signals, including enhanced Loran (eLORAN), as part of a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG).

The test program include a comprehensive palette of signals that are being evaluated for their ability to provide a robust, wide-area, wireless precise timing alternative that can operate cooperatively with GNSS technology or autonomously during GNSS unavailability.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
2012 European Satellite Navigation Competition Opens
March 23, 2012

2012 European Satellite Navigation Competition Opens

The 2012 European Satellite Navigation Competition will accept your idea, innovative service or business plan for GNSS applications beginning April 1.  Submit your idea online at www.galileo-masters.eu through June 30.

This year, the competition is working with 20 partner regions in Europe, Brazil, the Middle East and North Africa.  You do not have to be a resident of the partner regions in order to enter, however you must anticipate basing your business in one of them.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
SBIRS Decision Could Undermine Prospects for GPS Dual-Launch
March 22, 2012

SBIRS Decision Could Undermine Prospects for GPS Dual-Launch

SBIRS GEO-2 satellite in Baseline Integrated System Test (BIST-1). Lockheed Martin photo.

The Air Force is poised to forego putting nuclear detonation detection sensors on the Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites, a decision that could complicate efforts to maintain the GPS system by hampering plans to launch multiple, lighter GPS satellites on a single rocket.

Read More >

By Inside GNSS
1 … 146 147 148 149 150 … 205
IGM_e-news_subscribe