GPS Notes
Galileo calls home
May 8, 2008
Giove-B, the test satellite for Europe's Galileo global positioning system, has sent back its first navigation signals.
The Giove-B satellite carries the most accurate clock ever sent into orbit, and this means that the system is capable of providing location information accurate down to a meter.
The 30-strong Galileo fleet is intended to be fully operational by 2013.
Posted by Kathie 12:16 PM. | TrackBack (0)
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China launches encrypted GPS
China, determined not to be locked out of GPS, is launching an independent GPS service that will also contain a secondary, encrypted, signal presumably for military use.
Like GPS, Galileo and Glonass, Beidou/Compass would be free of direct user charges but also feature an encrypted signal for authorized users only, presumably including the Chinese military.
Chengqi Ran, vice director of the China Satellite Navigation Project Center, said the secure Beidou/Compass signal would be "a highly reliable signal dedicated to complex situations."
Beidou/Compass is designed to feature five satellites in geostationary orbit and 30 satellites in medium Earth orbit. Ran and Xiaohan Liao, a deputy director at China's Ministry of Science and Technology, said the first of the medium Earth orbit satellites, launched in April 2007, is functioning well but is still the subject of in-orbit validation.
Posted by Kathie 11:48 AM. | TrackBack (0)
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