GLONASS Gains Momentum

Russia And India Sign Agreements On Glonass Navigation System

File image of Glonass class satellite.
by Staff Writers
New Delhi (RIA Novosti) Jan 25, 2007
Russia and India signed two cooperation agreements Thursday on Russia's global space navigation system Glonass, which will be used by Moscow's long-time partner in the military-technical sector. Glonass, a Russian version of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), is designed for both military and civilian purposes, and allows users to identify their positions in real time. It can also be used in geological prospecting.
The agreements were signed by the head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, and Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), with President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in attendance.

Perminov earlier said Russia and India plan to jointly use Glonass.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is also currently in India, said Tuesday that Moscow and New Delhi had agreed to launch Glonass-M satellites with the help of Indian booster rockets, and to create new-generation navigation satellites.

In December 2005, President Vladimir Putin ordered that the system be ready by 2008, and Ivanov said Glonass would be available to domestic users for military as well civilian purposes by the end of 2007.

Perminov said earlier that Russia is also in talks with the United States and the European Space Agency to prepare agreements on the use of Glonass jointly with the GPS and Galileo satellite navigation systems.

The agency plans to have 18 satellites in orbit by late 2007 or early 2008, and a full orbital group of 24 satellites by the end of 2009, he said.

Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister, said late last year that Russia will lift all precision restrictions on Glonass beginning in 2007, which will enable accurate and unlimited commercial use of the military-controlled global positioning system.

Current restrictions limit the accuracy for civilian users of Glonass to 30 meters.

The first launch under the Glonass program took place October 12, 1982, but the system was only formally launched September 24, 1993.

Andrei Kozlov, the head of the Reshetnev Research and Production Center in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia's leading spacecraft manufacturer, said earlier the Glonass system currently has 13 satellites in orbit.

The satellites currently in use are of two modifications - Glonass and its updated version Glonass-M. Glonass-M has a longer service life of seven years and is equipped with updated antenna feeder systems and an additional navigation frequency for civilian users.

A future modification, Glonass-K, is an entirely new model based on a non-pressurized platform, standardized to the specifications of the previous models' platform, Express-1000.

Glonass-Ks' estimated service life has been increased to 10-12 years, and a third "civilian" L-range frequency has been added.

Tests on Glonass-K satellites are scheduled for 2007.


Source: RIA Novosti

GPScorrect issues

Those states and/or tribes that invested in older version of Trimble GPScorrect may want to take note of these issues. The state of WV had purchased over 15 copies of version 1.0.

Older versions of GPS Correct will not work at all with ArcPAD 7.00. However the 7.01 patch from ESRI will allow use of a Trimble GPS in an ArcPAD environment. However this use is limited. No .ssf time signature file will be collected by ArcPAD from your Trimble GPS and this means no post processing of you data will be possible.


Nick Schaer
WVDEP Program Development Geologist

China "Kills" Satellite in low-earth Orbit - GPS Risk?

From CNN - Another reason is stay awake at night....

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China last week successfully used a missile to
destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on
Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and
pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.

According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the
ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese
weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The
missile carried a "kill vehicle" and destroyed the satellite by ramming
it.


The test took place on January 11. (Watch why the U.S. has protested
the missile strike )


Aviation Week and Space Technology first reported the test: "Details
emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C
(FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by
an asat (anti-satellite) system launched from or near the Xichang Space
Center."


A U.S. official, who would not agree to be identified, said the event
was the first successful test of the missile after three failures.


The official said that U.S. "space tracking sensors" confirmed that the
satellite is no longer in orbit and that the collision produced
"hundreds of pieces of debris," that also are being tracked.


The United States logged a formal diplomatic protest.


"We are aware of it and we are concerned, and we made it known," said
White House spokesman Tony Snow.


Several U.S. allies, including Canada and Australia, also have
registered protests.


Under a space policy authorized by President Bush in August, the United
States asserts a right to "freedom of action in space" and says it will
"deter others from either impeding those rights or developing
capabilities intended to do so."


The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the
use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."


Low Earth-orbit satellites have become indispensable for U.S. military
communications, GPS navigation for smart bombs and troops, and for
real-time surveillance. The Chinese test highlights the satellites'
vulnerability.


"If we, for instance, got into a conflict over Taiwan, one of the first
things they'd probably do would be to shoot down all of our lower
Earth-orbit spy satellites, putting out our eyes," said John Pike of
globalsecurity.org, a Web site that compiles information on worldwide
security issues.


"The thing that is surprising and disturbing is that [the Chinese] have
chosen this moment to demonstrate a military capability that can only
be aimed at the United States," he said.

Cool quickTime Movie of the Expansion of US Survey Control

May need to download QuickTime

http://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/foundations/spatial/survey_network.html

GPS III Anticipating 2013 launch

Press Release from GPS News

Boeing Passes GPS III Milestone and Receives Follow-on Funding

A Boeing GPS class satellite.
by Staff Writers
St. Louis (SPX) Jan 05, 2007
Boeing has successfully completed a critical U.S. Air Force review of its Global Positioning System (GPS) Space Segment III program and has been awarded a $50 million contract for additional system design activities. The Delta System Requirements Review, completed in November, featured an incremental capability insertion approach designed to ensure low development and delivery risks.
The review is part of a $10 million follow-on order to the Phase A Concept Development Contract awarded in 2004. The U.S. Air Force is expected to award the multi-billion dollar GPS III contract in 2007.

The $50 million cost-plus-fixed fee contract supports a System Design Review in March 2007 and key program decision points in June 2007. The modification adds detailed system engineering and design, and continues risk reduction efforts as the Air Force moves toward initial launch in 2013.

"GPS III sets a new standard for space-based navigation, and the Boeing team is well positioned to provide this next-generation system to ensure U.S. global leadership in space-based navigation," said Boeing GPS Program Director John Duddy. "GPS III will provide transformational capabilities, such as anti-jamming, to our customer and our warfighters, along with better accuracy and interoperability with Europe's Galileo system for our civil and commercial users."

Boeing is working closely with the U.S. Air Force to deliver new, advanced GPS capabilities to the military, civil government and the general public as early as possible. This includes Boeing's current production of 12 GPS Block IIF satellites under a contract from the Navstar GPS Wing at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles. Boeing will deliver the first GPS IIF satellite in 2007.

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GPS NEWS

Determining GPS Accuracy

Good article on accuracy issues with GNSS at GPS World

http://www.gpsworld.com/gpsworld/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=395779