Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
While news broke last week of a Department of Defense (DOD) policy to prohibit GPS-enabled devices in deployed settings, no one should expect a drop in usage of popular devices such as Fitbit fitness trackers from the general public.
By Stan Goff
The Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Directorate will host the 2018 Public Interface Control Working Group and Open Public Forum on September 12, 2018 for the following NAVSTAR GPS public documents: IS-GPS-200 (Navigation User Interfaces), IS-GPS-705 (User Segment L5 Interfaces), IS-GPS-800 (User Segment L1C Interface), ICD-GPS-240 (NAVSTAR GPS Control Segment to User Support Community Interfaces), and ICD-GPS-870 (NAVSTAR GPS Control Segment to User Support Community Interfaces).
By Inside GNSS
The Galileo constellation took another big step towards full operational capability with the successful launch last month of four satellites on-board an Ariane 5 launcher. Representatives of leading industry that have adopted Galileo then held a special press briefing for journalists from across the continent to address updates on how European citizens and businesses are already taking advantage of benefits delivered by Galileo.
By Stan Goff
The nation’s leading GPS experts voted unanimously Monday to oppose allowing Ligado Networks to use spectrum neighboring the GPS band for terrestrial communications.
By Dee Ann Divis
The European Space Agency (ESA) recently ran an internal competition for its trainees to develop an app capable of making positioning fixes using only Galileo satellites. ESA challenged these young graduate and national trainees to develop smartphone apps to perform satellite navigation fixes solely with the use of Galileo satellites. Three teams developed apps in their spare time, presenting their results to a jury of experts from ESA, the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA) and Google.
By Inside GNSS
Solutions to toughen receivers (make them more resistant to jamming and spoofing), and to augment GPS signals with those from other sources, will require either replacement or modification of existing equipment.
By Inside GNSS
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will conduct demonstrations of GPS receivers this fall to support the buying plans of first responders, the Coast Guard and other agencies within DHS. The tests aim to clarify how well the receivers stand up to jamming and spoofing while being used on small, unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS or drones) for maritime missions.
By Dee Ann Divis
The UK seems well and truly on the path to leaving the European Union. The implications for the Galileo program are still unclear, and won’t be known until Brexit negotiations are completed, at the earliest.
By Peter Gutierrez
With Wednesday’s successful Ariane 5 launch of four more Galileo satellites, the Galileo constellation grew to 26 satellites, extending the global coverage of the constellation.
By Stan Goff
Senate Seeks Report on OCX Alternative
Both the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee have now passed their spending bills, largely agreeing with the White House and their House counterparts on funding levels for the GPS program with the exceptions of nearly tripling the House cut to the GPS IIIF program and taking a shot across the bow of the new GPS ground system.
By Dee Ann Divis
China sent a new BeiDou navigation satellite into orbit on a Long March-3A rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in the southwestern Sichuan Province, at 4:58 a.m., Tuesday, July 10.
The satellite is the 32nd of the BeiDou navigation system, and one of the BeiDou-2 family, which is the second generation of the system. The state-run Xinhua press agency confirmed the launch within two hours after liftoff.
By Inside GNSS
Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division announced that it will highlight its family of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based modules and LRU solutions designed for system integrators seeking to rapidly and cost-effectively deploy Assured Position, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT) services at the 2018 Joint Navigation Conference, July 9-11 (Booth #109), the largest U.S. military Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) conference of the year with joint service and government participation.
By Inside GNSS
When talking to J. David Grossman, the new executive director of the GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA), one word comes up quite often: excited.
By Stan Goff
