First Look

The much-anticipated first GPS satellite with an L5 test payload was launched from Cape Canaveral on March 24, 2009. On April 10, at approximately 11:58 UTC, the L5 test transmission was turned on by the GPS Control Segment.

GAO Says GPS III Launch Delay Could Drop Constellation below 24 Satellites

As if a puzzling signal anomaly on the latest GPS Block IIR-M satellite and continued struggles in the long-delayed Block IIF schedule hadn’t created enough pressure, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report sketches dire prospects for the GPS program.

GPS and the Next Solar Max: Space Weather Study Seeks GNSS Users' Help

The solar wind plays havoc with GNSS ground and space segments – destroying electrical transformers and the electronic systems on satellites.

In fact, space weather is the single largest contributor to single-frequency GPS errors and also to differential GPS.2. And right now, we have only three years until the next Solar Max.

Rosum names Brad Anderson as CEO

Rosum Corporation, the Mountain View, California–based supplier of timing and positioning technology that combines GPS and broadcast television signals, has named Brad Anderson as the company’s new chief executive officer.

GPS SVN49 and L5 Signal: A Success with Problems

Signal anomalies characterized by the U.S. Air Force as “out of family” transmissions will keep the latest GPS satellite from being declared healthy for months, if ever.

The report on space vehicle number (SVN) 49 by the GPS Wing’s chief engineer, Lt. Col. David Goldstein to the European Navigation Conference in Naples, Italy, on May 4 mixed bad news with glad.

Also known as Block IIR-20(M), the spacecraft carries the demonstration payload for the new civil GPS L5 signal. The March 24 launch probably represented the last chance to meet an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) deadline for securing primary rights to use of the RF band by GPS.

GPS Wing Calls for Proposals for OCX Phase B

Officials from Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center’s GPS Wing have announced the release of a request for proposal (RFP) for Phase B of the Next Generation GPS Control Segment (OCX) contracts.

Obama Lifts Up GPS in Speech to U.S. Scientists

In his April 27 speech to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) annual meeting, President Barack Obama twice singled out the Global Positioning System as an example of the need for renewing the U.S. commitment to basic scientific research and education.

“The calculations of today’s GPS satellites are based on the equations that Einstein put to paper more than a century ago,” Obama said, having noted that “no one can predict what new applications will be born of basic research. . . .”