[gps-talkusers] Air Force to Launch Generation of New GPS Satellites
- From: "Steve" <hamsteve64@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gps-talkusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 17:20:54 -0500
BlankAir Force to Launch Generation of New GPS Satellites
DENVER After months of delays, the U.S. Air Force is about to launch the first
of a new generation of GPS satellites, designed to be more accurate, secure
and versatile. But some of their most highly touted features will not be fully
available until 2022 or later because of problems in a companion program
to develop a new ground control system for the satellites, government auditors
said. The satellite is scheduled to lift off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It's the first of 32 planned GPS III
satellites that will replace older ones now in orbit. Lockheed Martin is
building the new satellites outside Denver. GPS is best-known for its
widespread
civilian applications, from navigation to time-stamping bank transactions.
The Air Force estimates that 4 billion people worldwide use the system. But it
was developed by the U.S. military, which still designs, launches and operates
the system. The Air Force controls a constellation of 31 GPS satellites from a
high-security complex at Schriever Air Force Base outside Colorado Springs.
Compared with their predecessors, GPS III satellites will have a stronger
military signal that's harder to jam an improvement that became more urgent
after
Norway accused Russia of disrupting GPS signals during a NATO military exercise
this fall. GPS III also will provide a new civilian signal compatible with
other countries' navigation satellites, such as the European Union's Galileo
system. That means civilian receivers capable of receiving the new signal
will have more satellites to lock in on, improving accuracy. "If your phone is
looking for satellites, the more it can see, the more it can know where
it is," said Chip Eschenfelder, a Lockheed Martin spokesman. The new satellites
are expected to provide location information that's three times more accurate
than the current satellites. Current civilian GPS receivers are accurate to
within 10 to 33 feet (3 to 10 meters), depending on conditions, said Glen
Gibbons,
the founder and former editor of Inside GNSS, a website and magazine that
tracks
global navigation satellite systems. With the new satellites, civilian
receivers could be accurate to within 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 meters) under good
conditions, and military receivers could be a little closer, he said. Only
some aspects of the stronger, jamming-resistant military signal will be
available until a new and complex ground control system is available, and that
is not expected until 2022 or 2023, said Cristina Chaplain, who tracks GPS and
other programs for the Government Accountability Office. Chaplain said the
new civilian frequency won't be available at all until the new control system
is
ready. The price of the first 10 satellites is estimated at $577 million
each, up about 6 percent from the original 2008 estimate when adjusted for
inflation, Chaplain said. The Air Force said in September it expects the
remaining
22 satellites to cost $7.2 billion, but the GAO estimated the cost at $12
billion. The first GPS III satellite was declared ready nearly 2 1/2 years
behind
schedule. The problems included delays in the delivery of key components,
retesting of other components and a decision by the Air Force to use a Falcon
9 rocket for the first time for a GPS launch, Chaplain said. That required
extra
time to certify the Falcon 9 for a GPS mission. The new ground control
system, called OCX, is in worse shape. OCX, which is being developed by
Raytheon, is at least four years behind schedule and is expected to cost $2.5
billion
more than the original $3.7 billion, Chaplain said. The Defense Department has
struggled with making sure OCX meets cybersecurity standards, she said.
A Pentagon review said both the government and Raytheon performed poorly on the
program. Raytheon has overcome the cybersecurity problems, and the program
has been on budget and on schedule for more than a year, said Bill Sullivan, a
Raytheon vice president in the OCX system. Sullivan said the company is
on track to deliver the system to the Air Force in June 2021, ahead of GAO's
estimates. The Air Force has developed work-arounds so it can launch and use
GPS III satellites until OCX is ready to go. While the first GPS III waits for
liftoff in Florida, the second is complete and ready to be transported to
Cape Canaveral. It sits in a cavernous "clean room" at a Lockheed Martin
complex
in the Rocky Mountain foothills south of Denver. It's expected to launch
next summer, although the exact date hasn't been announced, said Jonathon
Caldwell, vice president of Lockheed Martin's GPS program. Six other GPS
satellites
are under construction in the clean room, which is carefully protected against
dust and other foreign particles. "It's the highest-volume production line
in space," Caldwell said. For the first time, the Air Force is assigning
nicknames to the GPS III satellites. The first one is Vespucci, after Amerigo
Vespucci, the Italian navigator whose name was adopted by early mapmakers for
the continents of the Western Hemisphere.
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