Aerospace and Defense Archives - Page 42 of 57 - Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design

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.

By Inside GNSS

April 16, 2013

Military GPS Budget Appears Steady as President Bids to Slow Defense Cuts

Spending pressures on the Pentagon seem to be coming from every direction, and the GPS program appears unlikely to avoid them entirely.

The growing needs of veterans are poised to force up health care budgets and higher transportation costs and operating tempos have dug a $22 billion-hole in the accounts for Overseas Contingency Operations in places such as Afghanistan.

By Inside GNSS

April 10, 2013

GPS Design Changes Will Add Waveform Generator, Dual-Launch Capability, and More

A redesign of the GPS satellites under development by Lockheed Martin will add a signal waveform generator, search and rescue payload, laser retroreflector array (LRA), and dual-launch capability beginning with Space Vehicle 9 (SV09).

By Inside GNSS

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April 2, 2013

Continuing Resolution Pares GPS OCX, Launch Line Items

President Obama has signed a continuing resolution, an omnibus federal spending measure that includes funding for the GPS program.

By Inside GNSS

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.

By Inside GNSS

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.

By Inside GNSS

March 9, 2013

Assessing GNSS Data Message Performance

Working Papers explore the
technical and scientific themes that underpin GNSS programs and
applications. This regular column is coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Hein, head of Europe’s Galileo Operations and Evolution.

By Inside GNSS

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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.

By Inside GNSS

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.

By Inside GNSS

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.

By Inside GNSS

January 31, 2013

UK/US Deal on GPS Signal Patent Omits Galileo Version

A recently announced deal between the United States and the United Kingdom to revoke the UK’s surprise patents on a key GPS technology has a glaring omission: Intentionally left out of the agreement are patents on the European Union’s version of the technology, a signal structure important to enabling Europe’s Galileo system to work seamlessly with America’s GPS constellation.

By Inside GNSS

January 23, 2013

More Than Money Worries

Navigation users may benefit from GPS modernization sooner than expected thanks to an apparent shift in the schedule of the modernized GPS ground control segment still under development.

The change means that full operational implementation of the new signals will come earlier in the delayed modernization of the operational control Segment (OCS).

By Dee Ann Divis