[Updated 7:30 p.m. July 26 PDT) China launched another Compass/BeiDou-2 satellite at 5:44 on the morning of July 27 (Sichuan time zone). It is the ninth spacecraft in China’s indigenous satellite navigation and positioning network and the fourth in inclined geosynchronous orbit.
The navigation satellite was launched on a Long March-3A carrier rocket, according to China’s government-sponsored Compass website at www.beidou.gov.cn.
By Inside GNSSWhat have we learned from the LightSquared fiasco?
Aside from the fact that someone gambling with other people’s money, with friends in high places benefiting from his largesse, can make the law stand on its head and our hair stand on end.
But then, we already knew that.
Just because the forces behind the broadband cellular company, Philip Falcone and Harbinger Investments, made their money by betting against the housing bubble doesn’t take away from the fact that they represent the same crew who helped take down the world economy in 2007.
By Inside GNSSCiting European Space Agency (ESA) studies that showed “harmful interference” to Galileo receivers operating up to 1,000 kilometers from LightSquared base stations, a European Commission (EC) official has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about his “deep concerns” about the wireless broadband company’s terrestrial transmissions in the 1525–1559 MHz band next to L1 GNSS frequencies.
By Inside GNSS[updated July 16] Boeing has received the first on-orbit signals from the second of 12 GPS Block IIF satellites it is building for the U.S. Air Force. GPS IIF-2, renamed Space Vehicle Number 63 (SVN-63), is functioning normally and ready to begin on-orbit maneuvers and operational testing.
After two postponements, the second GPS Block IIF satellite launched successfully from Cape Canaveral at 2:41 a.m. EDT on July 16. A video of the launch was posted on YouTube and can be viewed here.
By Inside GNSSA Beijing consulting firm estimates the size of China’s Compass/BeiDou domestic industry was 6 billion renminbi (US$927 million) in 2010, comprising only 6 percent of the country’s GNSS market.
By Inside GNSSThe gloves have come off now that test results show clearly the probable effects on GPS of LightSquared’s proposed wireless broadband network: widespread, debilitating interference to GPS receivers.
By Dee Ann DivisThis officially sanctioned conference and equipment exhibtion addresses applications, technologies and trends for China’s satellite communications, broadcasting, remote sensing, navigation and positioning.It will be held at Hotel Nikko New Century in Beijing on October 26.28, 2011.
Subjects of most interest to Inside GNSS readers include:
By Inside GNSSThe International Symposium on Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Space-based and Ground-based Augmentation Systems and Aplications will take place at the Wilmersdorf in Berlin on October 10 and 11. The event will be held in English.
This year, the focus is on EUPOS, a ground-based European GNSS augmentation system, and on the regional geodetic reference frames and systems, ground-based GNSS infrastructures and technical developments in the field of DGNSS.
By Inside GNSSSIRGAS 2011, the annual working meeting of the organization in charge of the geocentric reference system for the Americas, will be held in Heredia, Costa Rica from August 8 to 10.
It will take place in Clodomiro Picado Twight auditorium at the Omar Dengo campus of the National University of Costa Rica.
By Inside GNSSNavtechGPS will offer its 2011 east coast GNSS technical seminars at the Doubletree Hotel in Annapolis, Maryland from Monday, July 11 through Friday, July 15.
Over 25 years, NavtechGPS has organized basic and advanced GNSS seminars for engineers and technical professionals all over the United States and has provided GPS/GNSS applications solutions for military and research customers, with product choices from more than 30 manufacturers.
By Inside GNSS[Updated July 9, 2011] The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on July 6 asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to hold off on allowing LightSquared to begin commercial operations, pending further evaluation of the cellular broadband system’s interference to GPS.
By Inside GNSSICG-6, the sixth meeting of the UN’s Sixth Meeting of the International Committee on GNSS, will take place in Tokyo from September 5-9.
By Inside GNSS