Aerospace and Defense

GPS Civil Funding Request Slashed
May 20, 2013

GPS Civil Funding Request Slashed

Jan Brecht-Clark, director, National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing

With just more than four months to go in the 2013 fiscal year, sequestration and furloughs are taking a bite out of key research and the work of the National Coordination Office (NCO) for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) — the government nexus for GPS-related policy matters.

The NCO is an interagency organization, explained its director, Jan Brecht-Clark in an emailed response; so, “each individual staff member is subject to furloughs implemented by their home agency as a result of sequestration.”

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By Inside GNSS
GENIUS Workshop: Vulnerabilities of GNSS

GENIUS Workshop: Vulnerabilities of GNSS

The October entry in this EU-sponsored series of free GNSS training workshops concerns GNSS vulnerability. It will take place at the University of Nottingham on October 8, 9 and 10.

The instructors will be Terry Moore, Alan Dodson and Marcio Aquino, all faculty at University of Nottingham Geospatial Institute.

The topics:

GNSS Overview: Position fixing, dead reckoning, space segment and SV blocks, ground control and improvement programs,user segment and applications

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By Inside GNSS
MUSTER
May 2, 2013

MUSTER

Existing methods for improving the GNSS performance commonly attempt to enhance the signal processing and navigation estimation parts of a single receiver. Such approaches, however, leave unexplored the potential benefits inherent to the integration of data from multiple receivers.

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By Inside GNSS
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Air Force Examining Broader Options for Next GPS III Satellite Buy
April 30, 2013

Air Force Examining Broader Options for Next GPS III Satellite Buy

Gen. William Shelton. DoD photo

The Air Force will decide this fall whether to build more GPS III satellites or move to a new generation of spacecraft, the leader of Air Force Space Command told Congress last week.

“We’re on contract right now . . . through (GPS III) satellite vehicle number eight. Satellite vehicles nine and beyond – the acquisition strategy for that – will be debated in the fall,” General William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), told the House Armed Services Committee on April 25.

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By Inside GNSS
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GNSS Hotspots | March 2013
March 25, 2013

GNSS Hotspots | March 2013

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

1. LATE LAUNCHES
Cape Canaveral and Plesetsk
√ [updated April 1] After three delays, a single GLONASS-M satellite will go up from Plesetsk space center on April 26. The United States will send up SVN66, the fourth GPSIIF satellite— on an Atlas V launcher for the first time—during the early evening of May 15. It had been delayed from March.

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By Inside GNSS
falcone.jpg
March 24, 2013

Galileo on Its Own

TABLE 1: Deployment Status Note: Two types of clocks on board: PHM = Passive Hydrogen Maser, RAFS = Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standard

Europe’s new age of satellite navigation has passed a historic milestone — the very first determina-tion of a ground location using the four Galileo satellites currently in orbit together with their ground facilities.

This fundamental step confirms the Galileo system works as planned.

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By Inside GNSS
The Sequester and Its GPS Discontents
March 1, 2013

The Sequester and Its GPS Discontents

Deep military spending cuts set to kick in March 1 will likely slow efforts to modernize the GPS constellation, insiders agree, in large part because many of the personnel needed to push the program forward will be sitting at home, unpaid, one day out of every five.

The human impact of the deep cuts taking effect when sequestration kicks in on Friday was already evident in mid-February during the program review conference held by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

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By Inside GNSS
Lockheed Powers Up First GPS III Satellite Module
February 28, 2013

Lockheed Powers Up First GPS III Satellite Module

The core structure of the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) stands in Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility. Lockheed Martin photo

Well, the lights work. So far, so good.

The Lockheed Martin team developing the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation GPS III satellites has turned on power to the system module of the program’s first spacecraft, designated GPS III Space Vehicle One (SV-1).

According to the prime contractor, the achievement is a key indication that the team is on track to deliver the first satellite for launch availability next year, although the actual first launch will probably take place in 2015.

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By Inside GNSS
Lockheed Gains New GPS III SV Contract, Reaches Milestone
February 18, 2013

Lockheed Gains New GPS III SV Contract, Reaches Milestone

The U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Califorinia, has awarded Lockheed Martin Space System Company a $62-million firm-fixed-price contract for GPS III Space Vehicles (SVs) 5 and 6 to be completed by June 30, 2017.

Funded under the federal Fiscal Year 2013 budget and announced February 8, construction will take place at the company’s facilities in Newtown, Pennsylvnia.

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By Inside GNSS
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