The Russian space agency Roscosmos launched a venerable Proton rocket carrying three GLONASS-M satellites into orbit on December 14. Each 3,000-pound satellite is designed to last seven years. They join a constellation numbering 19 satellites, although only 16 are healthy. PLUS: Loran and Galileo...More>>

With final satellite construction bids pending as this magazine goes to press, the Galileo program clarified a recent round of launch postponements and announced that the European Union (EU) will rescind its requirement for a special license to manufacture and sell Galileo receivers. Plus: GPS to...More>>

Four Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites scheduled to launch next year have already missed their first pad date.The European version of Russia’s Soyuz rocket is now scheduled to carry the four IOV satellites into orbit in two launches in November 2010 and early 2011, as announced by...More>>

The first in a series of deviations from normal GPS signal broadcasts during September was noted by researches at the University of New Brunswick, among others around the globe, who found that normal signals from the L1 and L2 transmitters on the GPS satellite PRN01/SVN49 were unavailable for more...More>>

One of the satellites in the Chinese domestic satellite navigation system, Beidou, is no longer in geostationary orbit and appears to have been abandoned.More>>

The current GPS constellation of 30+ satellites provides a high level of availability, reliability, and accuracy to users. Centimeter-level accuracy requires the use of carrier-phase measurements and the resolution of associated integer ambiguities; success is a function of the number of satellites...More>>

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued on May 7 an alarming report on GPS, characterizing ongoing modernization efforts as shaky. PLUS: Problems Aboard IIR(M)-20; LORAN Report Sees DaylightMore>>

A new era in GPS modernization has begun. On March 24, the GPS IIR-20(M) satellite known as SVN49 rose and joined the constellation. The satellite carries a demonstration payload to transmit the new civil GPS L5 signal on 1176.45 MHz. PLUS: Witness to History; Second Compass Satellite; Septentrio...More>>

A debate on the viability of Galileo's Public Regulated Service (PRS) simmered just under the surface, and twice bubbled to the top, at the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit addressing The Worldwide Race in GNSS, March 3-5. PLUS: DAGR Extended; Jamming Trial Confirms Vulnerabilities; moreMore>>

The U.S. National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) posted on its website the 2008 edition of the Federal Radionavigation Plan, official source of radionavigation policy and planning for the federal government, prepared jointly by the departments of...More>>