Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Air Force Space Command announced its intent this week to award Raytheon a sole source contract to support the new GPS ground system though the wording of the announcement left some question as to when delivery of that system would take place.
By Dee Ann Divis
Spectrum regulators are considering a request to modify tough restrictions on devices and systems relying on Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology, an approach to using frequencies that skips across wide swaths of spectrum instead of confining its signals to distinct, narrower bands.
By Dee Ann Divis
China’s Xi’an Satellite Control Center recently completed a health check of more than 10 BeiDou-2 navigation satellites using a data system that slashed the analysis time from 10 hours to five minutes.
By Dee Ann Divis
House and Senate lawmakers have agreed on authorizing the administration’s entire $1.757 billion budget request for the GPS program with the exception of a $10 million trim to the GPS III Follow-On (GPS IIIF) program.
By Dee Ann Divis
Safety and cost reasons led U.S. aviation regulators to choose a somewhat less efficient system for oceanic air traffic control, government watchdogs told Congress, adding that the majority of the airlines the researchers surveyed agreed with that approach.
By Dee Ann Divis
Spectrum regulators should hold off on granting a waiver supporting testing of a new UltraWideband (UWB) technology for driverless vehicles until more information is available, the GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) said in comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In fact the FCC should require a minimum level of information be submitted before considering any UWB waivers or changes to the UWB rules, the GPSIA said.
By Dee Ann Divis
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA — NASA is poised to demonstrate an advanced atomic clock that could someday markedly improve satellite navigation.
By Dee Ann Divis
UPDATE: A week after this story appeared the news broke that Fred Kennedy had quit as the head of the Air Force’s new Space Development Agency after just four months on the job. News reports suggested that issues with his boss, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin, were at the heart of the resignation. — Dee Ann Divis
The director of the Department of Defense’s new Space Development Agency (SDA) said Friday that one of his priority projects is to create an alternate GPS capability using frequencies different from those of the current constellation.
By Dee Ann Divis
New Board Designation Expected This Fall
The leading U.S. panel of satellite navigation experts, the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board (“PNT Advisory Board”) opened its June meeting with a renewed charter, a new chairman and seven new members.
By Dee Ann Divis
Location privacy is on the minds of lawmakers from both parties with provisions about disclosure, data collection and sharing in more than half a dozen bills. There is also language in a House appropriations bill nixing the use of federal funds for GPS tracking.
By Dee Ann Divis
A House resolution now up for consideration details the way GPS is used and its impact on the economy.
By Dee Ann Divis
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has designated positioning, navigation, and timing services (PNT) a “National Critical Function.” That is PNT is now officially a capability so vital to the United States that its “disruption, corruption, or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety.”
By Dee Ann Divis
New York City reportedly had its government wireless network knocked out on April 6 when the GPS week number in signal’s message rolled over—that is when the system, as planned, reset its week counter back to zero.
By Dee Ann Divis
GNSS spoofing is more wide spread than previously believed and being used to not only misdirect satellite navigation users but to deny GNSS service altogether, according to a new report by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a non-profit that analyzes transnational security issues.
By Dee Ann Divis
As part of the development of a National Spectrum Strategy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for feedback on future spectrum needs in rural America and, more importantly for the GNSS community, on what spectrum needs to be protected.
By Dee Ann Divis
