The System: All Systems Go, with a Spring into Space

Planet Earth gained five new navigation satellites in late March, for four satellite systems.

GPS. The U.S. Air Force’s ninth GPS Block IIF satellite (GPS IIF-9) launched on March 25 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The IIF-9 rode aboard a Delta IV rocket, the workhorse of the GPS fleet for successful launches. The satellite was declared operational on April 21.

“Many thought the Delta IV and GPS days were long gone, but the recent questions concerning reliable and proven launch vehicles have brought them back online, so to speak,” said GPS World Defense Editor Don Jewell. “The 20-year milestone for GPS space vehicles on orbit that occurred on April 27 translates to approximately 500 orbital years just for the IIR and IIF constellations alone. The IIAs may account for that many orbital hours as well.

“This is by far the most successful launch record ever put together by any nation or government. No other space-faring nation even comes close. The U.S. Air Force and all the players should be proud of all these records and more, plus we have one more GPS asset on orbit, providing GPS signals to the world and all they enable, courtesy of the USAF.”

Galileo. Two days later, March 27, a duo of Galileo satellites was successfully launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The seventh and eighth Galileo satellites rode aboard a Soyuz ST-B rocket. Both are in their planned orbits.

IRNSS. The next day, March 28, the fourth satellite (IRNSS-1D) of  the IRNSS satellite navigation constellation was launched onboard PSLV-C27, and reached its orbital slot April 9. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast, in the 28th consecutive successful PSLV mission.

BeiDou. On March 30, China launched the first of a new generation of navigation satellites, BeiDou-3 M1, for its BeiDou constellation. BeiDou-3 M1 is the first of 17 next-generation Beidou navigation satellites. It will have a new navigation signal system with inter-satellite links and other tests to verify the satellite navigation system. The new series of satellites is expected to mark an advancement in the completion of Beidou Phase III several years ahead of schedule, by as soon as 2017 rather than 2020.

GLONASS. Not making the March launch cut, GLONASS kept its hat in the orbit ring, so to speak, by issuing some far-sighted predictions. Nicholas Testoyedov, CEO of Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev, said that the first GLONASS-K2 spacecraft will be launched into orbit in 2018. “New code division (CDMA) signals will be emitted, so it will provide more accurate positioning for users.”

The GLONASS budget for 2015 will be cut by more than 5 billion rubles, a drop of more than 10 percent. GLONASS is also suffering through an embezzlement scandal, related to construction of a new ground control center.

Galileo’s worldwide ground segment as of March 2013.

Galileo Ground Upgrade

On April 9, the European Space Agency announced completion of a full-scale hardware and software migration to version V2.0 of its global Ground Mission Segment providing all Galileo navigation messages. The Ground Mission Segment was turned off Jan. 26, allowing the migration to take place over the month of February. March was taken up with detailed checking by operations and system, concluding in a final check on March 31 to validate the successful migration.

“The upgrade has provided better overall performance and availability, along with improved robustness, security and operability,” explained Martin Hollreiser, overseeing mission segment development for ESA, with Thales Alenia Space France as prime contractor. “An overall 25 percent performance improvement is confirmed.

“Three new sensor stations, Kiruna, Ascension and Azores — used to monitor the satellite navigation signals — were added to the operations chain, as well as a new uplink station in Papeete, to uplink corrections incorporated in the navigation message to the satellites for broadcast to the users.”

The Ground Mission Segment at its core is determining the exact satellite orbits and synchronizing all the satellite and terrestrial elements of that clock: the relevant control center is linked to a global network of ground stations (sensor and uplink stations). The Galileo signals currently undergo technical testing, with early services for the public projected for 2016. “A further update is foreseen for the end of this year,” Hollreiser added, although this will occur with no interruption of services.

GPS Glitch Dates from 2011

On April 15, the U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate said data analysis shows that a technical error affecting some GPS IIF satellites first appeared in 2011. The error affects the way the ground control system builds and uploads messages transmitted by the satellites, but does not affect the accuracy of GPS signals. It involves the ground-based software used to index messages. “A GPS message indexing issue was recently identified that affects a limited number of active GPS IIF satellites, but does not degrade the accuracy of the GPS signal received by users around the globe. The result is an occasional broadcast not in accordance with U.S. technical specifications. ”