200909 September/October 2009

NOAA, Japan Establish QZSS Ground Station in Guam
August 27, 2009

NOAA, Japan Establish QZSS Ground Station in Guam

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have unveiled a new ground station in Guam that will track spacecraft from JAXA’s upcoming Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS).

Designed to work seamlessly with the U.S. Global Positioning System, QZSS is a space-based augmentation system (SBAS) being developed by JAXA to improve navigation satellite coverage over Japan and surrounding areas. The first QZSS satellite is expected to launch in 2010.

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By Inside GNSS
Russia Building Out GLONASS Monitoring Network, Augmentation System
August 19, 2009

Russia Building Out GLONASS Monitoring Network, Augmentation System

GLONASS-K spacecraft (artist’s illustration)

With a nearly restored and modernizing GLONASS system beginning to make inroads into mass market products and services, Russia has revealed plans to build out a space-based augmentation system (SBAS) and establish its first ground monitoring stations outside the Russian territory. 

In a July 30 presentation at an International Committee on GNSS (ICG) working group on interoperability, Dmitry Marareskul, head of the onboard satellite navigation sector of Information Satellite System Reshetnev Corporation in Zheleznogorsk, revealed Russia’s plans to expand its network of GLONASS monitoring and measuring stations to include sites in Australia, Cuba, and South America.

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By Inside GNSS
Air Force Launches Last GPS Block IIR-M Satellite
August 17, 2009

Air Force Launches Last GPS Block IIR-M Satellite

GPS IIR-21(M)

The U.S. Air Force successfully launched the last in the series of eight modernized GPS (IIR-M) satellites today (August 17) at 6:35 a.m. (EDT).

Using the Space Launch Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, the satellite was carried into space aboard the last of the Air Force’s United Launch Alliance Delta II rockets.

GPS IIR-21(M) will join the constellation of 30 operational satellites on-orbit, assuming a position in plane E, slot 3 and replacing space vehicle number 40 (SVN40). The Air Force expects to set the satellite healthy for navigation users worldwide next month.

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By Inside GNSS
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China Reveals Updated Compass/ Beidou-2 GNSS Signal Plan
August 11, 2009

China Reveals Updated Compass/ Beidou-2 GNSS Signal Plan

Figure 2. GNSS spectrum (after China ICG presentation)

A new Compass signal and frequency plan introduced at a recent International Committee on GNSS (ICG) working group meeting fills in some of the gaps on China’s current thinking about its GNSS system.

The presentation on the new Compass (Beidou-2) plan came at a July
30–31 workshop of the ICG Working Group A – Compatibility and
Interoperability (WG-A), in Vienna.

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By Inside GNSS
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