Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is weighing a request to waive spectrum rules for a new ultra-wideband (UWB) device that would operate across a wide swath of frequencies including those used by satellite navigation. The proposal has prompted a call for a wider reconsideration of ultra-wideband limits, a suggestion opposed by the GPS community.
By Inside GNSS
The federal government is once again approaching the end of its fiscal year without the appropriations necessary to keep the doors open come October 1 — a reality that could undermine GPS modernization and related programs.
Congress, now in the midst of its August recess, will have just 12 days to sort things out when members return after Labor Day. Under the best of circumstances, lawmakers would almost certainly need to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to extend current spending levels and buy themselves time to hammer out budgetary deals.
By Inside GNSS
Only a small percentage of railroads are expected to obtain system certification and complete implementation of GPS-aided positive train control (PTC) systems by the current deadline at the end of this year, according to a recent report to Congress by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
By Inside GNSS
A “GPS market review” submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week diverges in methodology and results from a preliminary study of U.S. benefits of the Global Positioning System provided earlier this year to the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board.
By Inside GNSS
U.S. Representative John Garamendi. U.S. Publishing Office photoA quintet of well-placed lawmakers, tired of federal dawdling, are prepared to make the Pentagon responsible for building and maintaining eLoran as a backup system for GPS. The move could come by the end of the year, possibly through language attached to a must-pass bill.
Leading the bi-partisan charge are Duncan Hunter, R-California, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the subcommittee’s ranking member John Garamendi, D-California.
By Inside GNSS
In sharp contrast to the strong support given to the military’s satellite navigation programs in the next fiscal year, Congress is considering cutting every GPS-related programs supported by the Department of Transportation (DoT).
By Inside GNSS
With just weeks to go before Congress disperses for a month-long break lawmakers have yet to finalize either a defense funding bill or legislation authorizing military spending for fiscal year 2016. The way forward looks particularly rocky as enacting both bills will require resolving a yearslong fight over spending caps.
By Inside GNSS
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. RUM DEAL
Moscow, Russia, and Havana, Cuba
The U.S. stance on satellite navigation has long supported international cooperation and a degree of interoperability. In 2010 the Obama administration even adopted a space policy that said foreign satnav services could be used “to augment and strengthen the resiliency of GPS.”
That was easier in the abstract, however, when the only fully functional GNSS was GPS. Now, with other GNSS services coming online, American officials want to think things through again.
By Dee Ann Divis
At the European Economic and Social Committee’s Space & Society Conference, from left, Daniel Calleja Crespo, director general of European Commission’s DG Growth; EESC Space and Society Project Coordinator Edgardo Maria Iozia, and Giulio Bartolani di Montauto, European Space Agency’s Brussels office.Reporting from Brussels last year, we explained that the then–brand new EU GNSS Regulation had effectively put to bed years of wrangling over who does what in Europe’s GNSS programs. But the issue reared its head again in Brussels recently, in a highly charged discussion hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
By Peter Gutierrez
The U.S. Air Force and its mission partners successfully launched the 10th Boeing-built GPS IIF satellite aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Air Force Stations today (July 15, 2015).
The spacecraft is destined for plane C/slot 3 of the GPS constellation
The launch almost coincided with Friday’s 20th anniversary of the declaration of full operational capability (FOC) for the GPS constellation, which occurred on July 17, 1995.
Just two GPS IIF satellites remain to be launched — Atlas V rockets will be used to launch both.
By Inside GNSS
New QinetiQ PRS-capable receiverBritish manufacturer QinetiQ has today (July 14, 2015) announced its progress in developing a GNSS navigation receiver that can process encrypted Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS) signals.
The multi‑constellation, multi‑frequency receiver is a significant step in the company’s GNSS technology development, says QinetiQ, which expects to bring to market by 2020 end-user products for navigation, tracking, and timing based on the new receiver design. That timeline parallel’s the Galileo program’s current schedule for completing its satellite constellation.
Col. Steve Whitney now heads GPS DirectorateColonel Steve Whitney was sworn in Wednesday (July 8, 2015) as the director of the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California.
By Inside GNSS
