A: System Categories

August 30, 2011

House Science Committee Reschedules LightSquared GPS Interference Hearing

Now that Hurricane Irene and summer vacation have blown over, members of Congress are returning to Washington, D.C., to resume — among other things — addressing the question of LightSquared’s interference to GNSS.

A hearing originally scheduled for August 3 is back on the agenda for the U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and now scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. on September 8.  

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By Inside GNSS
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August 22, 2011

2SOPS Takes Over IIF-2, Moves to Replace SVN-30 with Spare

Command and control of the second GPS Block IIF satellite has been turned over to the 50th Space Wing’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOP) at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, today (August 22, 2011).   

The Space and Missile Systems Center’s (SMC) GPS Directorate, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, retained control of the satellite during a 30-day on-orbit checkout period before the hand-off to 2 SOPS.

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By Inside GNSS
August 17, 2011

See the USA Challenge ‘Final Five’ Best Ideas at ION GNSS 2011

Artist’s clay rendering of the USA Challenge “Oscar.” The five finalists will be awarded this statuette in bronze at ION GNSS 2011.
Artist’s clay rendering of the USA Challenge “Oscar.” The five finalists will be awarded this stauette in bronze at ION GNSS 2011.

Right now, six GNSS experts are poring over the GNSS spplications ideas and location-based services submitted to the 2011 USA Challenge, one of 23 regional contests in the European Satellite Navigation Competition.

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By Inside GNSS
August 16, 2011

LightSquared Charges That GPS Receiver Manufacturers “Ignore” DoD Standards

LightSquared has opened a new rhetorical front in its battle with the GPS community over the company’s efforts to convert L-band frequencies into terrestrial wireless broadband services: claiming in an August 11 letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that receiver manufacturers “chose to ignore” Department of Defense (DoD) standards.

In response, the Coalition to Save Our GPS, a group of GPS receiver manufacturers opposed to LightSquared’s plans, called the company’s filing an act of "desperation."

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By Inside GNSS
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July 29, 2011

GNSS Experts to Judge 2011 Satellite Navigation Applications Idea Contest

Find out more about 2011 USA Challenge applications ideas

Six judges — satellite navigation engineering experts from Stanford University, the Air Force Institute of Technology, Overlook Systems, NovAtel, KLA Global, the Institute of Navigation, and Inside GNSS — will select the finalists in the 2011 USA Challenge, one of 23 regional contests in this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC).

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By Inside GNSS
July 26, 2011

China Announces Successful Compass/BeiDou-2 Satellite Launch

Official launch photo by Jinli Wang

[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.

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By Inside GNSS

The Fire Next Time

What 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.

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By Inside GNSS
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