The seven-minute video explains in simple terms how important GPS has become to everyday life — for aircraft and ship navigation, global financial transactions, precision agriculture, weather forecasting, disaster relief, and, of course, smartphones.

The recent testing of GPS III space vehicle 1 (SV 1) bus — the portion of the space vehicle that carries mission payloads and hosts them in orbit — assured that all bus subsystems are functioning normally and ready for final integration with the satellite’s navigation payload. Systems tested included: guidance, navigation and control; command and data handling; on-board computer and flight software; environmental controls; and electrical power regulation. The SV 1 satellite’s network communication equipment subsystem that interfaces with the ground control segment and distributes data throughout the space vehicle also passed all tests as expected.

This milestone follows February’s successful initial power-on of SV 1, which demonstrated the electrical-mechanical integration, validated the satellite’s interfaces, and led the way for functional and hardware-software integration testing.

“The successful completion of the SV 1 bus functional check out validates that the spacecraft is now ready to begin the next sequence of payload integration and environmental testing, prior to delivery,” explained Keoki Jackson, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Navigation Systems mission area.

GPS III SV 1′s navigation payload, which is being produced by ITT Exelis, will be delivered to Lockheed Martin’s GPS Processing Facility (GPF) near Denver later in 2013. The hosted nuclear detection system payload has already been delivered and mechanically integrated. The satellite remains on schedule for flight-ready delivery to the U.S. Air Force in 2014.

GPS III is a critically important program for the Air Force, affordably replacing aging GPS satellites in orbit, while improving capability to meet the evolving demands of military, commercial and civilian users. GPS III satellites will deliver three times better accuracy and — to outpace growing global threats that could disrupt GPS service — up to eight times improved anti-jamming signal power for additional resiliency. The GPS III will also include enhancements adding to the spacecraft’s design life and a new civil signal designed to be interoperable with international global navigation satellite systems.

The U.S. Air Force has produced a video about the GPS satellite modernization program:

Lockheed Martin is under contract for production of the first four GPS III satellites (SV 1-4), and has received advanced procurement funding for long-lead components for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth satellites (SV 5-8).

The GPS III team is led by the Global Positioning Systems Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Lockheed Martin is the GPS III prime contractor with teammates ITT Exelis, General Dynamics, Infinity Systems Engineering, Honeywell, ATK and other subcontractors. Air Force Space Command’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS), based at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., manages and operates the GPS constellation for both civil and military users.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 118,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services. The corporation’s net sales for 2012 were $47.2 billion.

This course will help attendees develop proficiency with advanced receiver processing of current, modernized, and new signals from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS. It teaches systems engineering skills, along with techniques for receiver processing and for assessing processing performance. Review problems, worked in class, help students understand and apply the key concepts.

Those who attend will become proficient with the essential aspects of using GPS and GNSS signals.

Course days:
Friday, Saturday, September 13-14
Monday, Tuesday, September 16-17

Instructor: Dr. John Betz, MITRE

For more information, visit the Navtech website.

According to information shared by the Russian Legal Information Agency, the Investigative Committee’s department for the Moscow Region has launched a preliminary probe into the case.

Construction of the GLONASS satellite navigation system control and support center began in June 2010 on the site used by TsNIImash, the head research company of Russia’s federal space agency. The center was supposed to hold equipment for collecting and processing the data supplied by the GLONASS global network.

The construction was financed by a federal program, with 1.050 billion ($33.22 million) allocated for the project. By the end of 2010, it came to light that construction costs had been overstated, Izvestia reports. An expert appraisal revealed that the contractor had rigged the costs. The government did not allocate additional funds, so construction was suspended in December 2011 when the Federal GLONASS Program for 2002-2011 ended. The construction of the building has never been completed.

In November 2012, the general designer of GLONASS, Yuri Urlichich, was dismissed from his post as a result of the scandal.

IRNSS, an independent navigation satellite system being developed by India, will have a constellation of seven satellites that enables its users to determine their location and time accurately. These satellites will be positioned in geostationary and inclined geosynchronous orbits 36,000 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. IRNSS coverage will extend over India and the southeast Asia region. The satellites are equipped with high-precision atomic clocks and continuously transmit navigation signals to users.

As the focal point of many critical operations of IRNSS, the ISRO Navigation Centre (INC) is responsible for providing the time reference, generation of navigation messages, and monitoring and control of ground facilities including ranging stations of IRNSS. It hosts several key technical facilities for supporting various navigation functions.

Key to the navigation support is the time reference to which all ground systems and the satellite clocks are synchronized. This time reference is generated by the high-precision timing facility located at INC. This timing facility is equipped with high-stability, high-precision atomic clocks to provide stable and continuous time reference to the navigation system.

IRNSS will have a network of 21 ranging stations geographically distributed primarily across India. They provide data for the orbit determination of IRNSS satellites and monitoring of the navigation signals. The data from the ranging/monitoring stations is sent to the data processing facility at INC where it is processed to generate the navigation messages. The navigation messages are then transmitted from INC to IRNSS satellites through the spacecraft control facility at Hassan/Bhopal. The data processing and storage facilities at INC enable swift processing of data and support its systematic storage.

INC is connected to the ranging stations and to the satellite control facilities through two highly reliable dedicated communication networks consisting of satellite and terrestrial links. The hub for the satellite communication links is hosted at INC.

The INC was inaugurated by V. Narayanasamy, minister of state in the Indian prime minister’s office. Speaking on the occasion, Narayanasamy said he appreciated the commitment and dedication of Indian space scientists in realizing the objectives of the country’s space programme. The minister also gave away various awards instituted by Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and ISRO.

Using data from the real-time service of the International GNSS Service (as supported by the Multi-GNSS Experiment), real-time protocols and new high-precision multiple signal messages and a new generation multi-constellation network of GNSS stations, the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) has been able for the first time to compute decimeter-accuracy Galileo orbits in real time.

The networks used in this work include the CNES/Institut Géographique National REGINA (REseau Gnss pour l’Igs et la NAvigation) network and the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) and associated organizations CONGO (COoperative Network for GNSS Observation) network (real-time access courtesy of Oliver Montenbruck). The filter used for the multi-constellation real-time orbit determination is a CNES proprietary tool based on a Kalman filter.

The following figure shows the network of stations used in this experiment:

The CNES orbits have been compared to an accurate reference orbit computed by Technical University München (TUM) as part of the MGEX project. The following figure shows the 3D orbit differences for the two solutions (for the ProtoFlight Model (PFM) and Flight Model 2 (FM2) satellites), over the 10 days of the experiment. Excluding the first day during which the filter converges, the 3D root-mean-square orbit difference is about 15 centimeters. This demonstrates the feasibility of accurate real-time Galileo solutions using currently available networks and software tools.

Smith’s photograph was taken at 21:58:38 UTC (start) with a Canon EOS 450D Digital Rebel camera with an 18-55mm zoom lens. The camera settings were: focal length 55mm, aperture f/5.6, and an exposure of 8 seconds at an ISO value of 1600. Two images are shown below: the original, as obtained from the camera, and a greyscale image with edge enhancement.

The Centaur can be seen traveling left to right and starts its track as it crosses the constellation of Cygnus. There’s a slight wobble at the beginning as the shutter release was pressed. The glow at the bottom of the frame is from a streetlight. The elevation angle of the Centaur was approximately 12 degrees.

SVN66 will operate as PRN27 and it will eventually occupy the C-2 orbital slot, replacing SVN33/PRN03, a Block IIA satellite launched in 1996. SVN66 is currently in a drift orbit about 400 kilometers above the operational constellation. It should reach the C-2 slot within a few days from now. The satellite has already been added to the broadcast almanac although it has not yet started to transmit standard signals. It is currently marked as unhealthy in the almanac and will remain so, even after standard signals are switched on, until testing is completed sometime this summer.

Centaur upper stage with the payload still attached, original photo. Photo credit: Andy Smith

The same photo digitally enhanced:

Digitally enhanced photo. Photo credit: Andy Smith

Photo credit: Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance.

A U.S. Air Force Global Positioning System satellite built by Boeing was successfully launched May 15. The fourth GPS IIF satellite, Space Vehicle Number (SVN) 66, was carried aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V Launch Vehicle at 5:38 p.m. EDT (21:38 UTC) May 15 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

The new capabilities of the IIF satellites will provide greater navigational accuracy through improvements in atomic clock technology; a more robust signal for commercial aviation and safety-of-life applications, known as the new third civil signal (L5); and a 12-year design life providing long-term service. These upgrades improved anti-jam capabilities for the warfighter and improved security for military and civil users around the world, the Air Force said in a statement.

The Atlas rocket took off on schedule. The satellite was released from the Centaur upper stage at T+ 3 hours, 23 minutes and 52.8 seconds or about 01:02 UTC on May 16. Details on the Block IIF satellites and the Atlas rocket can be found here.

“I’m extremely pleased with today’s launch and delighted to be part of this mission that enhances our nation’s critical GPS capability. Thanks to the superb efforts of the of the 45th and 50th Space Wings, United Launch Alliance, our industry partners, the Atlas V and GPS IIF launch teams, the GPS IIF-4 mission was successfully carried out,” said Col. Bernie Gruber, director of the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Global Positioning Systems Directorate.

“The GPS constellation remains healthy and continues to meet and exceed the performance standards to which the satellites were built. Our goal is to deliver sustained, reliable GPS capabilities to America’s warfighters, our allies and civil users around the world, and this is done by maintaining GPS performance, fielding new capabilities and developing more robust modernized capabilities for the future,” said Colonel Gruber.

Here are videos of the launch:


Opening photo by Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance.

Photos show the launch of the U.S. Air Force’s GPS IIF-4 satellite from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Sun Jiadong, chief designer of BDS and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made his comments in an interview with The Beijing News, as reported by the Chinese government’s website.

He added that this compatibility is the only way to ensure the protection of national information. “Safety issues abound in economic areas,” said Sun. “Ordinary people may have few concerns about the security of information but it is of vital significance.”

The development of Beidou also largely depends on the government’s involvement. “Even though the enterprises spare no effort in developing the system, the products they make would not be available for mass production, which will in turn be reflected by the prices. The government has to promote the research and development of the system,” Sun said. Sun cited the governments of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as examples of local governments that were effectively helping to develop the BDS.

The use of Beidou could go beyond basic navigation functions and extend to the civilian market. It would take longer for the BDS to be available for civilians, said Sun. The use of Beidou on mobile phones relies on the development of a small and power-efficient chip. Otherwise the phone cannot be used.

When asked about when and how the cost of developing the BDS will be recovered, Sun reiterated that Beidou was developed to ensure the security of national information, and not to make profits.

The Beidou global navigation system will be available by 2020 with the launching of more than 30 satellites.