Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Big news came out of Washington, D.C. earlier this week regarding BeiDou and GPS as the United States and China have negotiated compatible signal characteristics that will both protect and enhance service for users of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the equivalent Chinese system.
By Inside GNSS
UPDATE: Today’s the day. Check back to the Inside GNSS website for updates on today’s launch.
A European Ariane 5 rocket followed dual rail tracks across the Guiana Space Center in South America on Monday on the way to its launch complex Monday, a day before today’s scheduled blastoff with four satellites to expand the Galileo navigation network. Also, you can follow the launch live at Spaceflight.com.
By Inside GNSS
At the lavish European Satellite Navigation Competition Awards Ceremony, we caught up with Carlo des Dorides, general director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), who updated us on the status of the much-anticipated Galileo Commercial Service (CS).
“On the CS, we are dialoging extensively with EU member states, because there is a more and more consolidated view that there could be an advantage to providing the service for free,” des Dorides said.
By Peter Gutierrez
A highly anticipated presentation by Ligado Networks to the nation’s leading satellite navigation experts took an unexpected turn when the company said it could not provide essential network information because it was looking to the government for technical direction and its business plans were still in flux.
By Dee Ann Divis
The U.S. Air Force’s third GPS III satellite in production flow at Lockheed Martin’s advanced satellite manufacturing facility in Denver is now fully integrated into a complete space vehicle.
GPS III Space Vehicle 03 (GPS III SV03) followed the first two GPS III satellites on a streamlined assembly and test production line. Technicians successfully integrated the satellite’s major components – its system module, navigation payload and propulsion core – into one fully-assembled space vehicle on August 14.
By Inside GNSS
Air Force Space Command announced Wednesday it will begin the next phase of its plan to buy another 22 GPS III satellites in two weeks.
The November 22 posting on Fed Biz Opps (fbo.gov) said the highly anticipated Request for Proposals (RFP) would be released on or about December 7. The contract for the new space vehicles is "planned as a single, predominantly Fixed Price Incentive-type contract awarded via full and open competition for production of 22 GPS III SVs."
By Inside GNSS
The Global Positioning Systems Directorate, which is poised to launch its procurement of another 22 GPS III satellites, has given its next tranche of spacecraft a name.
"We are officially calling this GPS IIIF," Col. Gerry Gleckel, the Directorate’s deputy director, told the November meeting of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board. "Just as there was a IIF that was the follow-on for the GPS II’s, this is the follow-on for the GPS III."
By Dee Ann Divis
The SORUS system, designed to enable user receivers to calculate Galileo PRS positions at predefined points in time including robustness against jamming and spoofing, picked up top honors at the 2017 European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC).
By Inside GNSS
Though lawmakers have made clear their interest in having U.S. military receivers incorporate European navigation signals, an agreement to use the encrypted Galileo signal remains elusive and the normal military requirements process could substantially delay implementation.
By Inside GNSS
Another milestone has been reached in efforts to showcase the many benefits improved satellite positioning can have on industries as the Australian Government launched a trial of Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) for the Australasian region at an event at CQUniversity Australia’s Rockhampton campus.
By Inside GNSS
Esterline CMC Electronics and NovAtel Inc. just announced a new strategic partnership, extending their collaboration in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning technology that started in the late 1990s. The partnership will see NovAtel’s industry-leading GNSS measurement technology integrated into a new Esterline CMC-designed multi-constellation, multi-frequency (MCMF) chipset for certified aviation use.
By Inside GNSS
House and Senate authorizers are forcing a reorganization of the Pentagon’s management of military space programs, giving authority to a soon-to-be-named official to prioritize space budgets across services and setting planning in motion for a possible new department. They also approved spending the full amounts requested for the military GPS programs and mandated that defense officials both test a backup to GPS and look at incorporating European and Japanese GNSS signals into military user equipment.
By Inside GNSS
