Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
A Long March III rocket carried the 16th Chinese Compass/Beidou2 navigation satellite into orbit from the Xichang Launch Center today at 1533 GMT (11:33 a.m. EDT), according to the official GNSS website at www.beidou.gov.cn.
The geostationery satellite successfully entered a planned transfer orbit.
By Inside GNSS
Central Hall WestminsterEuropean Space Solutions, a conference and business fair for European government and industry to meet users and developers of space-based technologies and services will take place on December 3, 4 and 5.
Central Hall Westminster Storey’s Gate conference center is the venue.
The Keynote speakers are Antonio Tajani, the European Commission vice president for industry and entrepreneurship; Richard Branson,space travel promoter and head of Virgin Group and David Willetts, UK minister for universities and science.
By Inside GNSS
China’s Xinhua state news agency has reported that a 16th satellite will be added to the nation’s BeiDou-2 (Compass) GNSS system by the end of this month.
By Inside GNSS
As part of ongoing research to help prevent and mitigate disruptions to computer networks on the Internet, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ research facility in Livermore, California, have turned their attention to handheld computing devices — including studying GPS spoofing threats to smartphones.
By Inside GNSS
University of Texas-Austin Radionavigation Lab drone used in GPS spoofing demonstrations. University of Texas photoA September report on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlighted the potential risks posed by GPS jamming and spoofing but failed to make any new recommendations on how the issue should be addressed. Associated privacy issues, however, have gotten more attention.
By Inside GNSS
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expected to ask its top advisors on signal interference to help map out the allowable power limits for applications using frequencies close to those used by the satellite navigation community.
By Dee Ann Divis
Dr. Todd Walter, Stanford UniversityContrary to a widely held public impression, the elimination of GPS Selective Availability in 2000 did not take care of the needs that many users have for enhanced GNSS capabilities.
Indeed, various “augmentations” have been developed to meet the requirements of some applications for better accuracy, availability, or integrity (the assurance of the quality of a signal) than are available from GNSS signals in space.
By Inside GNSS
A Soyuz rocket lifts off from Europe’s spaceport in French Guinana on its mission to place the second pair of Galileo in-orbit validation satellites into orbit. ESA photo by S. Corvaja.[Updated October 26, 2012] A Soyuz ST-B launcher carrying two Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites took off as scheduled at 18:15 GMT (20:15 CEST; 2:15 p.m. EDT) on October 12 from the European Spaceport in French Guiana.
All the stages of the Soyuz vehicle performed as planned and the Fregat-MT upper stage released the Galileo satellites into their targeted orbit close to 23,200 kilometer altitude, three hours 45 minutes after liftoff.
By Inside GNSS
The GPS Directorate has approved three contracts to continue the military GPS user equipment (MGUE) development program for portable, ground-based receivers.
By Inside GNSS
At the Intergeo conference in Hannover, Germany, today, NovAtel Inc. announced the addition of a new commercially exportable single-enclosure SPAN MEMS receiver to its line of SPAN GNSS/INS products.
By Inside GNSS
Galileo IOV satellites attached to their launch dispenser and encapsulated beneath the fairing of their Soyuz ST-B launcher. ESA graphic by P. Carril[Updated October 11, 2012] The next two Galileo satellites have been cleared for launch on Friday (October 12, 2012), a couple days later than originally planned.
Follow the Galileo IOV launch live online here.
By Inside GNSS
A third GPS Block IIF satellite launched successfully on Thursday (October 4, 2012) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida — the first GPS launch of the year. The spacecraft was carried aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Launch Vehicle
By Inside GNSS
In one of three separate filings on Friday (September 28, 2012) would-be broadband provider LightSquared asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set “operating parameters” leading to “revised technical rules” to enable it to operate in the lower of the two frequency bands where tests last year showed its operations would interfere with GPS.
Those rules and parameters should, the filing intimated, include standards for GPS receivers.
By Dee Ann Divis
