Naysayers still exist when talking about the emerging indoor positioning market. They say that the market is still too nascent — and the technology is sub par and not there yet. However, there are just too many atmospherics, and big companies getting involved in indoor positioning development, to brush it off as another technology fad. The recent announcement that 22... read more
Raytheon Company and Lockheed Martin have successfully completed the first launch readiness exercise for the U.S. Air Force’s next generation GPS III satellites. The exercise is a key milestone demonstrating the team remains on schedule to achieve launch availability in 2014, the companies said. The Lockheed Martin-built GPS III satellites and the Raytheon-developed next generation GPS operational control system, known... read more
On September 6, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) inaugurated its new premises in Prague, Czech Republic, in the presence of Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, in charge of Industry and Enterprise, and Minister of Transport Pavel Dobeš. Previously headquartered provisionally in Brussels, the headquarters of the Galileo program moved its seat to Prague over this summer, as had been agreed by... read more
News courtesy of CANSPACE listserv. Launch dates this fall for GNSS satellites are as follows, according to various sources: Compass M2 and M5: September 18, 18:12 UTC (speculative); Compass G6: No earlier than October 1. GSAT-10 (includes a GAGAN SBAS transponder): September 21. GPS IIF-3: October 4, 2012. Launch window: 12:10-12:29 UTC. Galileo IOV FM3 and FM4: October 10,... read more
Next GPS IIF in October The next GPS satellite, Block IIF-3 (SVN65), scheduled to be launched on October 4, will be positioned in orbital slot 1, which is in plane A. This slot is currently occupied by a Block IIA satellite, SVN39, operating as PRN09. SVN39 is one of the oldest operating satellites in the GPS fleet, dating from June... read more
By Richard B. Langley, Simon Banville, and Peter Steigenberger. For a brief period, and for a few hours on certain days, signals from the first four orbiting Galileo satellites could be received by state-of-the-art multi-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS receivers. Although not intended for actual positioning tests, the satellites did provide a first opportunity to assess the prototype Galileo signals in the... read more
By Irving Leveson. The $100 billion GNSS industry is already stressed. How deeply and how long the pressures persist depends to a great extent on the performance of the world economy. In a time of extraordinary uncertainty and change, the industry faces great challenges over the next 2–3 years and beyond: potential delays in availability of satellites and ground support,... read more
By Oliver Leisten and Viktor Knobe. Styling for consumer usage has progressively miniaturized of the antenna package to tiny dimensions compared to a free-space wavelength, even as devices with these miniscule antennas are designed to work close to the absorbent tissues of the user’s body and in the electromagnetic maelstrom of city street levels. GNSS antennas have responded with significant... read more
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