Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Tests 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
The 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
[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
After 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
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
1. Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California USA
TWINS!
Return to main article: "True3D HUD Wins Global SatNav Competition"
Many technologies are created before their best applications are even thought about. This leads to a business phenomenon known as “technology push” in contrast to “consumer pull.” The True3D Volumetric HUD technology did not share this path.
By Inside GNSS
No sooner had GPS positioning helped validate key aspects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity in the Gravity Probe-B program than GPS timing has been cited as helping bring his special theory of relativity into doubt.
At issue is the so-called OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) experiment, inaugurated in 2006 with the main goal of studying the rare transformation (oscillation) of muon neutrinos into tau neutrinos.
By Inside GNSS
Europe’s first two Galileo satellites have reached their final operating orbits, opening the way for activating and testing their navigation payloads.
Marking the formal end of their launch and early operations phase (LEOP), on November 3, control of the satellites was passed from the CNES French space agency center in Toulouse to the Galileo Control Center (GCC) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
By Inside GNSS
Russia launched a Proton-M rocket carrying three GLONASS-M satellites from the Baikonur space center at November 4 after a 24-hour delay due to technical reasons, a spokesman for the Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.
This was first launch of a Proton-M rocket with GLONASS satellites from Baikonur since a failed attempt last December. That led to the dismissal of several top officials in the space agency and industry and the appointment of Vladimir Popovkin to head the space agency.
