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OHB and SSTL Win Second Round of Contracts for 8 Galileo FOC Satellites
February 1, 2012

OHB and SSTL Win Second Round of Contracts for 8 Galileo FOC Satellites

The European Space Agency (ESA) today (February 2, 2012) signed a contract to build a further eight Galileo satellites, alongside other agreements to modify Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher to carry four navigation satellites at a time.
 
The signing took place at the European Commission’s center in London, England, in the presence of European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani and UK Universities and Science Minister David Willetts.
 

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By Inside GNSS
Big Solar Storm, Little GPS Effect
January 28, 2012

Big Solar Storm, Little GPS Effect

Solar flare viewed January 23, 2012. NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory image.

Although it was billed as the strongest for the past eight years and coincided nicely with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meeting in New Oreans, this week’s solar storm apparently had a limited effect on GPS receivers and users.

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By Inside GNSS
$655 Million for GLONASS in 2012
January 27, 2012

$655 Million for GLONASS in 2012

Russia’s GNSS program plans to launch three more satellites in the first half of 2012 as part of a 20.55 billion ruble (US$655 million) federal target program budget for the coming year, the Roscosmos space agency announced on January 17.

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By Inside GNSS
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LightSquared GPS Interference Controversy: Senate Investigation Won’t End with FCC Decision

LightSquared GPS Interference Controversy: Senate Investigation Won’t End with FCC Decision

A Senate investigation into how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) handled a request to rezone spectrum adjacent to GPS frequencies for LightSquared’s powerful wireless network will continue whether the FCC nixes the plan or not.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been looking into whether the FCC fast-tracked its review of the Virginia firm’s proposal to build a 4G broadband network with signals that would be, tests now show, powerful enough to interfere dramatically with GPS receivers.

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By Inside GNSS
The Return of SVN49

The Return of SVN49

In an effort to improve constellation sustainment, on or about Feb. 1, 2012, SVN-49 will resume transmitting an L-band signal using PRN24 as a test asset, according to the U.S. Air Force Space Command. Upon completion of the test event, SVN-49 will once again be decommissioned from active service.  PRN24 will then once again be available for future satellite service.

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By Inside GNSS
DoD Strategic Guidance “Protects” GPS Modernization

DoD Strategic Guidance “Protects” GPS Modernization

GPS and other space systems fare well in the Department of Defense (DoD) strategic budget initiative outlined today (January 26, 2012) by U.S. civil and military officials.

The comments reflected policy decisions laid out in “Defense Budget Priorities and Choices,” an introduction to a strategic guidance intended to plot the course of the Pentagon over the next five years. Modernization of the Global Positioning System will be “protected” financially, according to the document.

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By Inside GNSS
Supreme Court Ruling on GPS-Aided Monitoring Leaves Issues Unresolved
January 26, 2012

Supreme Court Ruling on GPS-Aided Monitoring Leaves Issues Unresolved

istock photo

A U.S. Supreme Court opinion released this week (January 23, 2012) ruled that warrantless GPS-aided monitoring of a suspect violated the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures."

But it will probably not be the court’s last word on the subject and may, in fact, provide Congress and state legislatures with enough incentive to address the subject more fully than they have to date.

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By Inside GNSS
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GNSS Hotspots | January 2012
January 19, 2012

GNSS Hotspots | January 2012

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. ICE BREAKER
Nome, Alaska USA
√ Two 2 1/2 pound GPS-guided UAVs that tolerate extreme cold helped bring fuel to snowbound Nome, Alaska over two weeks in January. On daily photographic missions, the Aeryon Scouts helped University of Fairbanks researchers map ice thickness in the frozen harbor so a Coast Guard icebreaker could slowly guide a Russian fuel tanker close enough to pump the fuel to shore.

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By Inside GNSS
GPS – The DoD’s Profit Center

GPS – The DoD’s Profit Center

Why Washington continues to talk about deficits while the country is talking about jobs and foreclosures is kind of a mystery, but let’s play along.

Following the failure of Congress’s would-be budget-cutting committee that wasn’t so super, the Department of Defense is facing about $500 billion in mandatory cuts over the next 10 years.

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By Dee Ann Divis
ICCE 2012 Special Session: Satellite Navigation Technologies
January 17, 2012

ICCE 2012 Special Session: Satellite Navigation Technologies

Saigon Morin Hotel in Hue, Vietnam

A special session on Satellite Navigation Technologies will be held as part of the 2012 International Conference on Communications and Electronics (ICCE) at the Saigon Morin Hotel in Hue, Vietnam on August 1-3.

Because South East Asia will be covered by all of the global and regional satellite navigation systems by 2015, the region will experience the multi-GNSS environment at its edge.

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By Inside GNSS
After Longitude - Modern Navigation in Context

After Longitude – Modern Navigation in Context

Cadets with sextants circa 1930 (from National Maritime Museum collections)

The "After Longitude" symposium covers what happened in between Harrison’s clocks and geospatial PNT. It is sponsored by the British National Maritime Museum and the Royal Institute of Navigation.

The event takes place on March 22 and 23 at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. 

Speakers on Thursday, March 22 will cover the earlier history of navigation. On Friday, topics include:

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By Inside GNSS
2012 International GPS/GNSS Showcase
January 16, 2012

2012 International GPS/GNSS Showcase

The 2012 International GPS/GNSS Showcase will take place at Chulalongkorn University, Department of Survey Engineering, in Bangkok on January 17.

The event promotes cooperation and research on GPS and GNSS applications in the Asia Pacific region.

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By Inside GNSS
Galileo Application Congress Prague 2012

Galileo Application Congress Prague 2012

The Czech prime minister, Petr Nečas and Antonio Tajani, the European Commission vice president in charge of the Galileo program, will keynote this conference at the Prague Marriott Hotel on January 26-27, 2012.

The event celebrates the partnership between the Czech Republic and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) which will relocate from Brussels to Prague this year.

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By Inside GNSS
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