New GPS Satellite Launch

US Air Force Takes Control Of Latest GPS Satellite


by Staff Sgt. Don Branum
50th Space Wing Public Affairs
Schriever AFB CO (SPX) Sep 28, 2006
A team of Airmen, civil servants and contractors with the 1st Space Operations Squadron here assumed launch and early orbit responsibilities for Global Positioning System IIR-M 15 shortly after it lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Sept.25.
The satellite's journey of 11,000 miles began with a spark as its Delta II rocket lifted off at 12:50 pm, Mountain Daylight Time, a year to the day after the launch of GPS IIR-M 14 in 2005.

Technicians at the Range Operations Control Center at Cape Canaveral could hear the rocket thundering toward orbit from their vantage point two miles away.

"We can hear it outside, guys ..we can hear it from inside the ROCC," said Karen Gauthier, the operations manager at Lockheed Martin's Valley Forge, Pa. facility.She and technical support teams from the Valley Forge facility were on the phone and collecting telemetry from Cape Canaveral.

GPS IIR-M 15 will provide two military signal bands and two civil bands.Its signal strength is two to four times more powerful than GPS Block II satellites launched less than 10 years ago, making the satellite more resistant to jamming, said Willard Marquis, a staff engineer with Lockheed Martin.

"People with GPS receivers don't get a signal strength, but they know whether the signal is corrupted," Mr.Marquis explained."You're more likely to get a signal from a Block IIR-M satellite near the horizon or in woods than you'd be with earlier satellites. The military bands on GPS IIR-M 14 and 15 are currently in use for development purposes -- they broadcast a signal, but for the moment, the signal does not carry any data, Mr.Marquis said.

1st SOPS is the only squadron of its kind in Air Force Space Command.1st SOPS supports GPS; Midcourse Space Experiment, a NASA Research and Development program and; working with 7 SOPS and CERES, collects booster telemetry.They are always in control through launches, anomalies, daily operations and satellite disposals.

"We support the 2nd Space Operations Squadron's GPS mission, and we have a couple of GPS satellites of our own," said Lt.Col.Craig Bomberg, 1st SOPS commander."We took over (today) after booster separation, and we'll hand the satellite over to 2nd SOPS next week.

The handover will occur after 1st SOPS Airmen and contractors have maneuvered the GPS satellite into its permanent orbit -- a route that carries it around the Earth every 12 hours.

The Air Force Satellite Control Network, operated by 22nd SOPS here, also supported the Delta II launch through its tracking stations at Guam and Hawaii.Satellites typically lose telemetry contact with the ground during the turbulent launch process; the 22nd SOPS detachment at Guam Tracking Station received a signal from the booster approximately one hour after launch.The satellite then separated from the rocket and was acquired for the first time approximately 15 minutes later at Kaena Point Tracking Station, Hawaii.

GPS provides 24-hour precision navigation and timing services to civil and military users.It provides combat capability to servicemembers overseas in applications such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions and handheld receivers.Civilian applications include automatic tellers and bank and stock market transactions.GPS first became available at full capacity in April 1995.

Solar Max in 2010 Likely to be Intense

March 10, 2006: It's official: Solar minimum has arrived. Sunspots have all but vanished. Solar flares are nonexistent. The sun is utterly quiet.

Like the quiet before a storm.

This week researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.

That was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn't tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn't exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies.

Dikpati's prediction is unprecedented. In nearly-two centuries since the 11-year sunspot cycle was discovered, scientists have struggled to predict the size of future maxima—and failed. Solar maxima can be intense, as in 1958, or barely detectable, as in 1805, obeying no obvious pattern.

The key to the mystery, Dikpati realized years ago, is a conveyor belt on the sun.

We have something similar here on Earth—the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt, popularized in the sci-fi movie The Day After Tomorrow. It is a network of currents that carry water and heat from ocean to ocean--see the diagram below. In the movie, the Conveyor Belt stopped and threw the world's weather into chaos.

The sun's conveyor belt is a current, not of water, but of electrically-conducting gas. It flows in a loop from the sun's equator to the poles and back again. Just as the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt controls weather on Earth, this solar conveyor belt controls weather on the sun. Specifically, it controls the sunspot cycle.

Solar physicist David Hathaway of the National Space Science & Technology Center (NSSTC) explains: "First, remember what sunspots are--tangled knots of magnetism generated by the sun's inner dynamo. A typical sunspot exists for just a few weeks. Then it decays, leaving behind a 'corpse' of weak magnetic fields."

Enter the conveyor belt.

"The top of the conveyor belt skims the surface of the sun, sweeping up the magnetic fields of old, dead sunspots. The 'corpses' are dragged down at the poles to a depth of 200,000 km where the sun's magnetic dynamo can amplify them. Once the corpses (magnetic knots) are reincarnated (amplified), they become buoyant and float back to the surface." Presto—new sunspots!

Right: The sun's "great conveyor belt." [Larger image]

All this happens with massive slowness. "It takes about 40 years for the belt to complete one loop," says Hathaway. The speed varies "anywhere from a 50-year pace (slow) to a 30-year pace (fast)."

When the belt is turning "fast," it means that lots of magnetic fields are being swept up, and that a future sunspot cycle is going to be intense. This is a basis for forecasting: "The belt was turning fast in 1986-1996," says Hathaway. "Old magnetic fields swept up then should re-appear as big sunspots in 2010-2011."

Like most experts in the field, Hathaway has confidence in the conveyor belt model and agrees with Dikpati that the next solar maximum should be a doozy. But he disagrees with one point. Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.

"History shows that big sunspot cycles 'ramp up' faster than small ones," he says. "I expect to see the first sunspots of the next cycle appear in late 2006 or 2007—and Solar Max to be underway by 2010 or 2011."

Who's right? Time will tell. Either way, a storm is coming.

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Solar Flare Effects on GPS can be Severe

Newswise — Strong solar flares cause Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to fail, Cornell researchers have discovered. Because solar flares -- larger-than-normal radiation "burps" by the sun -- are generally unpredictable, such failures could be devastating for "safety-of-life" GPS operations -- such as navigating passenger jets, stabilizing floating oil rigs and locating mobile phone distress calls.

"If you're driving to the beach using your car's navigation system, you'll be OK. If you're on a commercial airplane in zero visibility weather, maybe not," said Paul Kintner Jr., professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell and head of Cornell's GPS Laboratory.

Alessandro Cerruti, a graduate student working for Kintner, accidentally discovered the effect on Sept. 7, 2005, while operating a GPS receiver at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, one of six Cornell Scintillation Monitor (SCINTMON) receivers. Cerruti was investigating irregularities in the plasma of the Earth's ionosphere -- a phenomenon unrelated to solar flares -- when the flare occurred, causing the receiver's signal to drop significantly.

To be sure of the effect, Cerruti obtained data from other receivers operated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Brazilian Air Force. He found that all the receivers had suffered exactly the same degradation at the exact time of the flare regardless of the manufacturer. Furthermore, all receivers on the sunlit side of the Earth had been affected.

Cerruti will report on the findings Sept. 28 at the Institute of Navigation Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, where he will receive the best student paper prize. The full results of the discovery will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Space Weather.

The flare consisted of two events about 40 minutes apart: The first lasted 70 seconds and caused a 40 percent signal drop; the second lasted 15 minutes and caused a 50 percent drop. But this flare was moderate and short-lived; in 2011 and 2012, during the next solar maximum, flares are expected to be 10 times as intense and last much longer, causing signal drops of over 90 percent for several hours.

"Soon the FAA will require that every plane have a GPS receiver transmitting its position to air traffic controllers on the ground," warned Cerruti. "But suppose one day you are on an aircraft and a solar radio burst occurs. There's an outage, and the GPS receiver cannot produce a location. ... It's a nightmare situation. But now that we know the burst's severity, we might be able to mitigate the problem."

The only solutions, suggested Kintner, are to equip receivers with weak signal-tracking algorithms or to increase the signal power from the satellites. Unfortunately, the former requires additional compromises to receiver design, and the latter requires a new satellite design that neither exists nor is planned.

"I think the best remedy is to be aware of the problem and operate GPS systems with the knowledge that they may fail during a solar flare," Kintner said.

The team was initially confused as to why the flare had caused the signal loss. Then Kintner recalled that solar flares are accompanied by solar radio bursts. Because the bursts occur over the same frequency bands at which GPS satellites transmit, receivers can become confused, leading to a loss of signal.

Had the solar flare occurred at night in Puerto Rico or had Cerruti been operating SCINTMON only at night, he would not have made the discovery.

"We normally do observations only in the tropics and only at night because that's where and when the most intense ionospheric irregularities occur," said Kintner. However, since no one had done it before, Cerruti was looking at "mid-latitudes" (between the tropics and the poles), where weaker irregularities can occur both night and day. As a result, SCINTMON detected the solar flare.

Other authors of the forthcoming paper include D.E. Gary and L.J. Lanzerotti of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, E.R. de Paula of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais and Cornell research associate Hien Vo.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2006 Newswise. All Rights Reserved.

Review of MC devices by MT DEQ

TO: Lou Hamm

FROM: Julian Calabrese

DATE: September 25, 2006

SUBJECT: GPS Equipment

After some time using the mobile computing devices furnished by OSM to me I have the following comments.

Hewlett Pakard iPAQ PDA:

Positives:
• I like this device and have used it for most everything its capable of
• Compact
• Useful for everyday inspection and meetings
• Keeps notes easily
• Works well for navigational GPS and data work
• Data storage
• The HP folks were excellent with service when I had problems

Negatives:
• Crashes often (with the SD and CF cards data is safe)
• GPS is only capable of recreational grade.
• Screen is small for mapping purposes
• Not good for long days of data collection
• Durability is marginal (ok with drops and dust, but moisture bad)

Overall I like this platform for most uses as long as I take the negative points into account most of the time it is a dandy piece of equipment.

Trimble Recon:
I did not get a whole bunch of time on this device, but I was able to get some items for you. It functions pretty much like the HP; however, the CE mobile platform is set up so companies using it can configure it to their liking.

Positives:
• Case makes it more rugged
• PDA functionality

Negatives:

• I found that Trimble removed some of the handy features that the HP had.
• The touch screen was really sticky with the stylus and made the note taking cumbersome.
• The plug in GPS comes loose during transport and causes problems
• The screen is really small

Overall it is a handy device; however, with others around not much used. I do think it could be better for long data collection days due to durability and the note taking features are better than the trimble Geo XT. Also since it is a Trimble product the GPS correction capability should be available (I am learning about this and was unable to test it).

Teletype GPS 16 channel:

I find this GPS to function well with the Blue tooth PDA and it is one of the accurate recreational GPS units. The drawback is that there is not a good way to attach it and you have to hold it in a hand or make a way to get it to stay in a place it gets a signal.

GlobalSat GPS 20 Channel:

This GPS has a great belt mounted carrying pouch and it will hold a signal when you walk through a building and jump in and out of cars. However, the accuracy is definitely the downside I had many points off by quite a bit. Points were consistently off in the same direction so if there is a way to correct it would be a really nice Blue Tooth type receiver.

I believe these are all the devices I have that need reporting on. Please contact me with any questions.

More Galileo Delays - GLONASS Looking Better and Better...

Launch Of Second Galileo Test Satellite Delayed Until 2007

Galileo's test satellite GIOVE-A shows off it's solar arrays.
by Staff Writers
Frankfurt (AFP) Sep 12, 2006
Galileo, the navigation system that Europe hopes will rival the reigning US GPS network, is experiencing delays, with the launch of the second test satellite, GIOVE-B, set back several months, the Financial Times Deutschland quoted a company spokesman as saying on Monday.
"The launch is now planned for spring 2007," the spokesman for Galileo Industries was quoted by the newspaper as saying. Initially planned for spring of 2006, the launch of the GIOVE-B test satellite had already been postponed until this autumn. FT Deutschland said the renewed delay was due to technical problems connected with components. But they had nothing to do with the atomic clock that the satellite was equipped with, it added.

The first Galileo test satellite, GIOVE-A, blasted off from Kazakhstan on a Russian rocket last December.

The spokesman insisted that the new delay would not affect the deployment of the Galileo system.


Source: Agence France-Presse

Illinois and Eastern CORS Stations Added

September 13, 2006

FIVE COOP CORS ADDED


DuPage County Illinois has added DP5A in Hanover Park


KARA Company has added 2 more sites.
KA14 in Charleston, IL and KA15 in McHenry, IL


Loyola Spatial Systems has added 2 more sites.
LOYD in Lanham, Maryland and LOYE in Ripley, West Virginia

National Geodetic Survey Toolkit

Check out this site for coordinate system conversion freeware, the OPUS static survey-grade GPS correction service and much more!

http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/TOOLS/

VPN/Mobile Computing App Example for inspectors

Here is an app that is from the Mesquite, NV Police department website utilizing VPN, GPS, and mobile computers deployed in concert. Something like this could be prototyped for our inspectors in AFO or elsewhere.

THE TECHNOLOGY
Panasonic CF-28 Laptop
Panasonic PDRC Remote Display
Sierra MP775 EDGE Modem
Ledco Trunk Mount Laptop Dock
Netmotion Wireless VPN
Trimble GPS


Today's Police Departments require not only the latest technology, but also the most reliable. Officers cannot afford to go onto the streets without being armed with information. The MPD Intranet helped to fill this gap. With over 70 databases accessible on the Police intranet at their desk or in their car, a simple interface was required to manage all of this data and not get lost in this "sea of information".

The Process

The home page of the MPD intranet displays the most relevant information for the officers shifts. Items include the most recent stolen vehicles, BOLO's (Be on the lookout) with photos, weather maps and much more.

The tools that are available to officers are very specialized for each task. One such tool is the mugshot system. Officers in the field have access to over 50,000 mugshots via the intranet in their cars and this tool has identified many suspects without having to return to the station to retrieve this information.

With the amount of data available to the police officers, the Super Query tool was developed to help process all of the information in a reasonable amount of time. The Super Query can search through over five hundred thousand records in a matter of seconds. Just a few of the options that can be searched include addresses, partial names, partial license plates, vehicle makes and colors.

A new technology that was developed by Google and further developed for the MPD Intranet is Google maps. The data on the maps is automatically populated by reading the crime data from existing databases eliminating the need for a person to manually create the maps. Visual maps of crimes and sex offenders are easier to process than a plain text list. These maps can pinpoint crimes, sex offenders and problems areas. Several other departments outside the Police Department are now utilizing this technology. Similar applications from commercial vendors are priced over $80,000.00. Think of how you can use this open source technology for free.

Numerous other databases have helped the Police Department save money and allocate resources elsewhere. All of the ideas for the MPD Intranet come from the people that use it daily and this has enabled it to grow tremendously since its inception several years ago.

The Hardware

The Panasonic CF-28 laptop could be considered the Abrams Battle Tank of the laptop world. This unit meets Military Specifications for heat, vibration and durability. The unit is encased in a Magnesium alloy housing and is completely moisture and dust resistant. The hard drive is encased in a gel packed case to help dampen any vibrations that would destroy a normal hard drive and its data.

While the laptop spends 100% of its time in the trunk of the police car, a device called a PDRC sits up front with the officer. The PDRC is a ruggedized display screen and is touch screen enabled so that officer can request information on the computer by simply touching items on the screen. The officer also has a regular keyboard that is used when they need to enter or request specific data. The computer also has built-in wireless LAN so that the officers can receive large software or map updates when they're near a WIFI hotspot at a city facility.

The communications hardware for getting all of the data to and from the police vehicles is the Sierra Wireless MP775. This modem is also ruggedized and is designed for the harshest environments. This modem can transmit data at speeds over 150kbps and was designed for wide area mobile communications. This modem also helps address officer safety by transmitting GPS coordinates back to the Police Dispatch center. Dispatchers can easily see where any patrol car or fire apparatus is at by looking at the GPS mapping screen on their dispatch console.

Mobile Computing in Action Photos needed!!!!!

Please post interesting pics of mobile equipment in the field - of course, don't post anything you wouldn't want your Mom to see!

New! Satellite Tracker

Check out the new Satellite Tracker link! Tracks all flavors in real time!

Reminder: Please Provide Written Accounts

Those of you that have received Mobile Computing equipment from TIPS, please provide a one page written account of your experience with the equipment. It won't take much time and you can probably present it as a paper at a future Technology Transfer forum.

Include a brief description of the project, the role of the equipment, and the results achieved - both sucessful and non sucessful results. Please try to make a comparison in terms of time and effort between using the TIPS equipment and doing the job without the equipment.

We REALLY need this information to justify future purchases for TIPS customers. If you like these things and you want them to keep coming . . . .

New WAAS Satellites and Trimble equipment mods

4 September 2006
MGIS: New WAAS Satellite Information
Two new WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) satellites have recently begun broadcasting correction signals. The signals can not be used by Trimble® Mapping and GIS GPS receivers because the satellites are currently in test mode and the corrections are unreliable. The signals are expected to be certified and fully operational later in 2006.
Description
Newly launched WAAS satellites, PanAmSat (PRN 135, 133 deg W) and TeleSat (PRN 138, 107.3 deg W) are broadcasting WAAS correction signals. Testing by Trimble indicates that these signals are not satisfactory for reliable use. The satellites are currently in test mode, so accuracy varies from sub-meter to over 100 meters of error. To view the status of these satellites, go to http://www.nstb.tc.faa.gov/incoming/New_WAAS_Geo_Status.pdf.
The following information is from the FAA status document:
• The service from both of these (satellites) is still undergoing test and has not been certified and is not yet being operated to FAA standards
• Unplanned outages may occur at any time
• The schedule information above may change without notice
• The signals will be left on overnight and weekends but repairs will not be accomplished until the next normal working shift if there is a failure
www.trimble.com Page 1
Solution
Once these corrections are confirmed as suitable for use, Trimble intends to release the appropriate updates to support its GPS receivers. The following updates will be required:
Trimble GPS receiver
Software
Receiver firmware
GeoExplorer® 2005 Series
Yes
No
GeoExplorer Pocket PC 2003
Yes
Yes
GeoExplorer CE .Net and CE 3.0
Yes
Yes
GPS Pathfinder® ProXT™ and ProXH™
Yes
No
GPS Pathfinder Pro XR and Pro XRS
Yes
Yes
GPS Pathfinder Power
Yes
Yes
GPS Pathfinder XB
No
No
www.trimble.com Page 2

NDGPS led to the budget chop block

Aug 30, 2006
Nationwide Differential GPS (NDGPS) heads toward the budget chop block. Its 2007 allocation has been scaled back to zero. As in aught, nought, zot.

NDGPS, also referred to as the Coast Guard differential system, made its first NDGPS broadcast in the early-to-mid-90s. After years of industry talk about real-time DGPS, NDGPS was the first, mostly reliable source of real-time corrections that was free of charge (via your tax dollars).

Support from the mapping and non-aviation navigation markets pushed the government (the Department of Transportation took the lead) to continue the build-out of the NDGPS network. Each year, more sites were added, and NDGPS became a solid resource for folks wanting a free source of DGPS corrections that delivered meter-level accuracy. They just had to buy the hardware (beacon receiver and antenna) to use it. Today, more than ten years later, there are more than 80 broadcasting sites — and more planned — spread out over the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii, providing free DGPS coverage used by hundreds if not thousands of users on a daily basis.

A successful program?

Up to and including FY 2006, Congress and the President allocated a substantial annual budget for NDGPS improvements, operations, and maintenance. For example, the FY 2006 budget came to approximately $10 million — half of what was originally requested. Almost $100 million more is needed to complete the network build-out. After that, about $9.2 million is needed annually to operate and maintain the system.

However, unlike years past, this years budget (FY2007) for NDGPS improvements, operations and maintenance is………………….$0 (zero). The rumor mill says that since there’s no money to operate and maintain, some sites may actually be shut down. That’s not the case according to the Department of Transportation, however.

“The FY06 budget provides approximately $10 million for the NDGPS program. These funds will be used to operate and maintain the existing NDGPS system through October 1, 2007”, says Steven Kulm, Director, Office of Pubic Affairs for the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration.

So that means no money for new sites that were planned for FY 20007, and no money for developing new technologies such as High Accuracy (HA)-NDGPS.

Wow, what went wrong?

The problem facing NDGPS today, in my opinion, is the lack of a “killer app.” In other words it’s a neat tool and serves hundreds (if not thousands) of people on a daily basis, but if it disappeared tomorrow, life would go on. Therefore, when it comes to cutting the budget during tight times, programs like NDGPS are prime targets.

Now, I’m guessing the DOT may say that PTC (Positive Train Control) may be the killer app for NDGPS because it reportedly will save the railroad industry “billions” each year. That may be so, but if it was that easy to sell, then no one would be hacking away at the relatively puny NDGPS budget.

Putting the pressure on NDGPS is the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Wide Area Augmentation Service (WAAS) program. Like NDGPS, WAAS is a free government service providing corrections to improve accuracy and reliability of GPS positioning. The FAA began developing WAAS in the mid-90s and it was declared operational in July 2003.

WAAS has two things going for it that NDGPS doesn’t.

• A killer app. The future of aviation navigation is based squarely on GPS, and WAAS is an integral part of that program. The FAA is banking so heavily on GPS and has so many initiatives based on GPS, that there is no way it can back its way out of the program…and it shouldn’t. There are so many valuable uses for GPS in aviation that it boggles the mind. Some applications are focused on efficiency (e.g. better traffic control and throughput) and others are safety-of-life driven (e.g. situational awareness such as ADS-B). Because of this, the FY 2007 budget for WAAS is close to $100 million.

• WAAS is easy to use for non-aviation folks like us. It’s a no-brainer and it comes standard on every GPS receiver you purchase today. Whereas NDGPS requires the use of additional hardware (a 300khz receiver) and a separate antenna, no additional hardware or software is required to use WAAS. Using WAAS is virtually automatic. NDGPS receivers will never reach that level of simplicity. Good quality NDGPS antennas, by their nature, are bulky and I have serious doubts that any company will attempt to design an NDGPS receiver-on-a-chip (some have tried and failed), especially at this late stage of the game. With those two strikes, consumer GPS units will never incorporate NDGPS technology. And thus NDGPS will never achieve mass-market status like WAAS already has.

Availability

The foothold that NDGPS-supporters are hanging onto is the issue of the correction availability. Whereas WAAS is satellite-based and is dependent on line-of-sight between the user and the broadcast satellite, NDGPS broadcasts corrections on the 283-325khz band and does not require line-of-site between the user and the transmitter. It can even be received inside some buildings. However, signal propagation is interrupted by rough terrain and in metro areas, and ambient radio interference can interrupt the signal too. Although it’s not a true national service, there are certainly areas where the NDGPS can be received and WAAS can’t. The reverse can be stated also.

Accuracy

The NDGPS vs. WAAS debate in the surveying/mapping community has been a lively one this past year. This is due largely to major GPS manufacturers introducing professional mapping GPS receivers that use WAAS to achieve meter-level accuracy. Although NDGPS has the capability of being more accurate than WAAS, meter-level accuracy seems to be good enough for most mapping applications given the additional expense and equipment overhead required to use NDGPS. Think about it: Garmin discontinued their NDGPS receiver product line and now every GPS product they sell is WAAS-enabled.

Fate

Clearly, from a funding perspective WAAS has won the battle for now and has NDGPS back on its heels. The next twelve months (or less) will determine the direction of the NDGPS program.

“At this time, the U.S. Department of Transportation is deliberating how to administer the program in the future. We anticipate the Administration’s proposed FY08 budget (to be released in early 2007) will provide guidance on what the future of NDGPS will be,” says Kulm.

The challenge for NDGPS-supporters in the next few months is to not let the purse-string holders forget about NDGPS and its niche applications. If it’s business-as-usual in FY 2007 and the purse-string holders don’t feel the pain, what are the odds they’ll throw money at NDGPS in FY 2008?

— Eric Gakstatter (GPS World)

Glonass To Be Deployed In Full By 2010

Glonass To Be Deployed In Full By 2010

by Staff Writers
Moscow, Russia (RIAN) Aug 31, 2006
Russia's 24-satellite navigational and global positioning system, Glonass, will be fully deployed by 2010, the country's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry's press office said the development and use of Glonass was discussed in Moscow at a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and members of a government military commission.

"In his introductory speech, Sergei Ivanov said Glonass was extremely important to the country's defense and its economic development, and was ranked among the strategically vital elements of the country's infrastructure," the office said.

Also discussed were ways to improve the competitiveness of navigational services, the mass production of navigational equipment for consumers, as well as legal issues.

Glonass is a Russian analogue of the United States Global Positioning System, which is designed to allow users around the globe to receive signals from satellites to identify their position in real time.


Source: RIA Novosti
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