Aerospace and Defense Archives - Page 29 of 53 - Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design

Aerospace and Defense

June 22, 2016

Senate Passes Defense Authorization Bill “Fencing Off” Funding for Next-Generation GPS Control System

The Senate approved defense authorization legislation last week before heading out for weekend campaigning. The measure contains a provision the White House said would further delay completion of the already overdue next-generation GPS control system (OCX) by 6 to 12 months.

Senators passed their version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 on June 16, defying the White House, which had said June 7 it would veto the bill.

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By Inside GNSS
June 10, 2016

Here to Stay – Europe Committed to Long Haul in Space with Galileo

Lowri Evans, DG GROWTH. Photo by Peter Gutierrez

As ranking European Union (EU) official, Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Elzbieta Bienkowska set the tone in a keynote speech that anticipated some major issues to be addressed in the upcoming “EU Space Strategy,” the EUropean Commission’s next big new European space policy document, expected to come out later this year.

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By Inside GNSS
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May 29, 2016

GNSS Hotspots | May 2019

One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder.
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST

Electronic Throwaways, Space X Wins, Drones at Sea and Shaking It Up

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By Inside GNSS
May 19, 2016

Re-Baseline This!

So, if everything had gone as planned, we would have a new ground control segment (OCX) operating a new generation of satellites (GPS III) as they launch into an expanded constellation in support of modernized military GPS user equipment (MGUE).

But then the best-laid plans. . . .

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By Inside GNSS
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Military GPS Receiver Advances Could Help Trim Satellite Costs

Advanced military receivers using the sort of modern multi-channel, multi-constellation capabilities already available commercially, could enable the Air Force to focus its anti-jam efforts on the ground, simplifying future GPS satellites and lowering their cost. Moreover, experts told Inside GNSS, the cutting-edge receivers could be deployed years before the anti-jam capability planned for the new GPS III satellites would be fully available.

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By Dee Ann Divis

Inter-Signal Correction Sensitivity Analysis

Symbols and Acronyms

Modernized GPS satellites give civil users the ability to achieve dual L1/L2 PY accuracy using dual L1CA/L2C ionosphere-free measurements and, with IIF satellites, dual L1/L5 signals. Because broadcast GPS ephemeris data is based on an ionosphere-free pseudorange calculated from dual L1PY/L2PY measurements and the civil signals are not all perfectly aligned to it, new broadcast parameters and a new modernized dual-frequency algorithm are needed in order to align new signals with the dual L1/L2 PY signal.

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By Inside GNSS

Listening for RF Noise

GNSS signals are vulnerable to interference due to being extremely weak when received on Earth’s surface. Therefore, even a low-power interference signal can easily disrupt the operation of commercial GNSS receivers within a range of several kilometers.

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By Inside GNSS
May 17, 2016

Senate Kills GPS OCX Funding Due to Cost Overruns — Now $5.3 Billion and Rising

The Senate Armed Services Committee zeroed out the Pentagon’s $393 funding request for the new GPS ground control system during its May 11 markup, asserting that the program’s cost overruns — with a total cost that may reach $5.3 billion, up from an original $1.5 billion — had breached the Nunn-McCurdy Act.

Under the act, such a breach could result in termination of the Next Generation Operational Control System or OCX unless the Secretary of Defense goes through an in-depth review of the program and personally certifies its critical importance.

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By Inside GNSS
May 6, 2016

SMC Announces Feasibility Assessment Contracts for Next Round of GPS III Satellite Competition

The USAF Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) announced today (May 5, 2016) the award of three contracts to support companies in preparing for the competition to build additional GPS Block III space vehicles (SVs).

The SMC’s GPS Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, will award one GPS III Phase 1 Production Readiness Feasibility Assessment contract to each of the following companies: Boeing Network and Space Systems, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, and Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

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By Inside GNSS
April 27, 2016

SpaceX Snares GPS III Launch Services Contract

The Air Force announced today (April 27, 2016) the award to Space Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) of an $82.7-million contract for GPS III Launch Services.

The Air Force characterized the contract as “the first competitively sourced National Security Space (NSS) launch services contract in more than a decade.” However, a decision last November by the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed, not to compete for this GPS III launch effectively left SpaceX as the only bidder.

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By Inside GNSS
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