satellites/space segment Archives - Page 15 of 23 - Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design

satellites/space segment

OCX budget Cut Could Slow Program; First IIF Might Launch by May 2010
September 17, 2009

OCX budget Cut Could Slow Program; First IIF Might Launch by May 2010

An increasingly likely $97.4-million cut in the GPS OCX budget for fiscal year 2010 (FY10) would slow down work on modernization of the operational control segment, but the Air Force would try to recoup any reduction in the FY11 budget.

Meanwhile, technical problems that have delayed development of the follow-on generation of Block IIF satellites are largely resolved and a first launch is expected in May 2010.

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By Inside GNSS
EC to Declare EGNOS Operational for Non-Safety-of-Life Use
September 11, 2009

EC to Declare EGNOS Operational for Non-Safety-of-Life Use

The European Commission (EC) expects to declare in October that the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) — which provides satellite-based augmentation signals for GPS and Galileo — is operationally ready as an open and free service for non-safety-of-life (non-SoL) applications, according to a press release from the GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA).

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By Inside GNSS
ESA European Space Weather Week (ESWW6)
September 7, 2009

ESA European Space Weather Week (ESWW6)

The sixth European Space Weather Week gathering will take place November 16-20 2009 at the Oud Sin-Jan conference center in Bruges, a UNESCO world heritage site. The welcome reception will take place in the Gothic Meeting Hall of the city.

The meeting is divided into five sessions on topical themes and a wrap-up of the key issues and a roundtable discussion on future European directions in space weather.It will also include a space weather fair.

The abstract submission deadline is September 14, 2009.

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By Inside GNSS
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Air Force Sets Latest GPS Satellite Operational
August 27, 2009

Air Force Sets Latest GPS Satellite Operational

GPS IIR-21(M) logo (United Launch Alliance)

The last in the series of eight modernized GPS Block IIR satellites, GPS IIR-21(M), has been declared operational for military and civilian users worldwide, just 10 days after launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Launched August 17, the spacecraft (identified by its space vehicle number, SVN50, and pseudorandom noise code, PRN05) joins the constellation of 30 operational satellites on orbit.   

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By Inside GNSS
NOAA, Japan Establish QZSS Ground Station in Guam

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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Upcoming Block IIR-(21)M Launch Wraps Up Generation of GPS Satellites
August 6, 2009

Upcoming Block IIR-(21)M Launch Wraps Up Generation of GPS Satellites

The scheduled August 17 launch of GPS satellite IIR-(21)M — also known by its space vehicle number SVN50 — will mark the end of a couple of eras: the final launch of the Lockheed Martin–built replenishment generation (Block IIR) of GPS satellites and the last Air Force launch using the Delta II rocket.

Notably, SVN50 will not have a payload connected to the J2 reserve auxiliary payload port that proved problematical with the L5 demonstration payload on the previous GPS satellite, SVN49, and possibly on other Block IIR/IIRMs.

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By Inside GNSS
U.S. House of Representatives Trims $97 Million from OCX Budget, Cites Contract Delays
July 23, 2009

U.S. House of Representatives Trims $97 Million from OCX Budget, Cites Contract Delays

(Updated 11 a.m. (PDT), includes additional details from the GPS Wing)

A $97.4-million reduction in the GPS program made by the U.S. House of Representatives would affect the modernization program for the operational control segment (OCX), not the GPS III satellite budget as reported earlier.

In adopting the action of its appropriations committee, the full House approved H.R. 3326, the Department of Defense (DoD) Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) budget, on July 30. The bill was referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 3. In its report on the bill, the House committee said it made the cuts because of contract delays in the OCX program.

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By Inside GNSS
ISRO Extends Raytheon Contract for GAGAN GPS Augmentation System
July 21, 2009

ISRO Extends Raytheon Contract for GAGAN GPS Augmentation System

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has awarded a new $82 million contract to Raytheon Company to modernize the Indian air navigation system.

Raytheon will build the ground stations for the GPS-Aided Geosynchronous Augmented Navigation System (GAGAN), and the Indian Space Research Organization will provide the space segment and additional ground equipment. GAGAN will provide satellite-based navigation for civil aviation over Indian airspace and adjoining areas in south and east Asia.

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By Inside GNSS
GPS Signal Anomalies: Is SVN49 Just the Tip of the Iceberg?
July 18, 2009

GPS Signal Anomalies: Is SVN49 Just the Tip of the Iceberg?

Block IIR Satellite L-Band Transmitter Array of 12 Helical Antennas. Lockheed Martin photo.

After GPS Wing engineers and contractors figure out how to solve the elevation-dependent signal anomalies on the latest GPS satellite — Space Vehicle Number 49 (SVN49), they may want to take a look at another nine Block IIR and IIR-M spacecraft that European scientists say exhibit similar, but less severe, behavior.

In an article that will appear in the July/August issue of Inside GNSS, Tim Springer and Florian Dilssner, GNSS engineers in the Navigation Support Office of the European Space Operations Center (ESOC), described the effects of the anomaly as well as the U.S. Air Force’s initial attempts to solve the problem by altering the broadcast satellite orbital positions and time. A version of the article was posted June 25 on the magazine’s website.

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By Inside GNSS
GPS Wing Seeks Manufacturer, User Feedback on SVN49 Signal Anomaly, Solution
June 29, 2009

GPS Wing Seeks Manufacturer, User Feedback on SVN49 Signal Anomaly, Solution

GPS satellite L-band antenna elements

The GPS Wing is reaching out to receiver manufacturers and the user community to gather comments on the SVN49 signal anomaly and the Air Force’s provisional solution to the problem.

Despite earlier news reports suggesting that the problem, which has kept the latest GPS satellite from being declared operational, was on its way to being solved, a GPS Wing spokesperson characterized the remedy of altering the satellite’s broadcast orbital position (ephemeris) and time as only a “partial fix.” Indeed, high-precision dual-frequency users, such as those in the International GNSS Service, may continue to encounter difficulties in handling the SVN49 signal.

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By Inside GNSS
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