Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
GLONASS launch 2008[Updated 03:35 GMT, March 2] Russian Space Forces successfully launched three GLONASS satellites from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan on March 2, at 00:19 Moscow time (22:19 GMT, March 1).
The launch had been postponed from last September after an anomaly was discovered in one of the on-orbit space vehicles (SVs) navigation payload.
By Inside GNSS
Raytheon Corporation graphicOfficials from the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Global Positioning Systems Wing announced today (February 25) the award of the Next Generation GPS Control Segment (OCX) contract to Raytheon Company, Intelligence & Information Systems, Aurora, Colorado.
With a baseline duration of 73 months, the OCX development contract has option years for sustainment worth a potential total of $1,535,147,916. Raytheon teammates include Boeing, ITT, Braxton Technologies, Infinity Systems Engineering, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
By Inside GNSS
The theme of the 2010 International Symposium on GPS/GNSS is "At a Turning Point." It will take place at Howard International House in Taipei, Taiwan on October 26-28.
National Cheng Kung University is organizing and hosting the event. The symposium will be held in English.
The annual forum is open to innovative ideas on GNSS systems, techniques, applications and opportunities by researchers and engineers from academia and industry.
By Inside GNSS
TÜV SÜD, an independent third-party certifier, has awarded IFEN GmbH an official certificate affirming the conformance of IFEN’s NavX-NCS GNSS RF navigation constellation simulator with the Galileo Open Signal Signal-in-Space Interface Control Document (OS SIS ICD).
By Inside GNSS
President Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 (FY11) would allocate $1.057 billion for Department of Defense (DoD) GPS-related procurement and development activities and nearly $180 million to the Department of Transportation (DoT) for civil GPS programs.
By Inside GNSS
First Block IIF Satellite (Boeing)[updated Februaary 16] The first Block IIF satellite is undergoing final launch preparations after arriving at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a Boeing-built C-17 Globemaster III airlifter.
Space Vehicle 1 (SV-1), the first of 12 GPS IIF satellites for the U.S. Air Force, will lift off on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV vehicle later this year, with the first launch window in mid-May.
By Inside GNSS
Diagram of solar flare effects (NOAA)An Atlas 5 rocket sent NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) up on February 11 on an $850 million, five-year mission to find out more about the sun’s magnetic field activity and space weather and, hopefully, to improve forecasting enough to make it possible to safeguard GPS and other technologies.
By Inside GNSS
The 2010 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit is now going on at the Residenz München in Munich, Germany from March 9 to 11.
For the Inside GNSS take on the event, read "Munich Summit Asks Where GNSS is Going."
By Inside GNSS
Trimble has introduced its new Condor family of GPS modules, featuring advancements in signal tracking for applications in poor signal environments, as well as two antenna companion modules.
Compatible with active or passive antennas, the Condor L1 C/A-code GPS receivers can be used in portable handheld, battery-powered applications such as sport accessories, PDAs, cameras, computers, and communication peripherals as well as vehicle tracking, navigation, and security products.
By Inside GNSS
Col. Bernard Gruber. USAF photo
Col. Bernard Gruber, currently the commander of the 45th Space Wing Operations Group at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, will take over command of the GPS Wing later this year.
Gruber served at the wing’s predecessor organization, the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office (GPS JPO) in the early 1990s, where he was involved with user equipment acquisition including the Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) procurement. He will replace Col. David Madden, perhaps as soon as May. Gruber received his appointment as colonel in January 2006.
The deadline for abstract submission for the 2010 Joint Navigation Conference has been extended to Friday, February 19.
The 2010 Joint Navigation Conference (Guidance, Navigation and Control) will take place at Wyndham Orlando Resort in Florida, USA from June 7 to June 10, 2010.
The conference theme is "Military Navigation Technology: The Foundation of Military Ops." It is cohosted by the Joint Service Data Exchange (JSDE) and the Institute of Navigation (ION) for the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
By Inside GNSS
Quasi-Zenith satellite orbitThe Japanese Space Agency has selected a nickname for its first GNSS satellite: “Michibiki.” JAXA received more than 11,000 entries in its recent contest to raise national awareness of the GPS augmentation program.
The first of three Quasi-Zenith satellites will launch during the Japanese 2010 fiscal year, sometime before March 31, 2011.
By Inside GNSS
[UPDATED Feb. 8, 2010] The Russian GNSS system, GLONASS, has brought its contingent of transmitting satellites back up to 19, as spacecraft launched in December and others off-line for maintenance have returned to healthy status.
Meanwhile, Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio broadcasting service, has reported that a monitoring station is being established at the Russian Antarctic outpost of Bellingshausen to track GLONASS satellites. The orbital planes in the constellation are oriented so that GLONASS spacecraft pass over higher latitudes in the northern and southern hemispheres than do the other GNSS systems.
By Inside GNSS
