GNSS

Galileo satellites arrive at Europe’s Spaceport

Galileo atellites crossed the Atlantic from ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands to Cayenne in French Guiana. These are the first of the last batch of Galileo First Generation satellites, known as ‘Batch 3’, made up of 12 satellites in all. They are built by OHB SE in Bremen, Germany, with their navigation and search and rescue payloads contributed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in Guildford in the UK. www.esa.int

No foreign components in Glonass satellites

All Glonass-K2 satellites will be made exclusively of Russian-made components by 2026, with the import substitution to be expanded to other spacecraft, the satellite›s manufacturer told Sputnik.

“We are on schedule. We are only talking about the Glonass-K2 satellites, with regard to which the work has been launched. The rest of our spacecraft will copy solutions tested on the navigation systems. The component base, microassemblies, and individual subsystems will then be borrowed for other devices.

All Glonass-K2 satellites will be made of Russian components from 2026,» Nikolay Testoedov, CEO of Information Satellite Systems – Reshetnev Company, said.

Foreign-made components will however continue to be used in commercial spacecraft assembled in Russia.

Ginan: Analysis Centre Software

Geoscience Australia has developed an open-source Analysis Centre Software GNSS toolkit to process real-time geodetic data and deliver positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services to Australians. This capability is called Ginan. It will enable positioning accurate to within 5 cm or better, when a user has access to equipment that can obtain a precise carrier phase observation and internet connection to access the positioning products. This toolkit will manage the acquisition, processing and delivery of multi-GNSS.

Users have access to open-source software and products that enhance the accuracy of positioning. Industry, innovators and system integrators can use this system to develop new products and applications that use precise positioning, delivering the benefits to their customers and to the Australian public. The software is currently under development. In 2022, a production version of the software will be made available as an open source. This will be in addition to Geoscience Australia’s existing real-time precise point positioning product files and correction streams. www.ga.gov.au

Michibiki-1R navigation satellite launched by Japan

Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) launched a replacement for its first satellite, Michibiki-1, on October 26. QZS-1R, to be known as Michibiki- 1R, flew up on a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries rocket and all went smoothly. QZSS functions as a regional satellitebased augmentation system (SBAS0, improving GPS and Galileo accuracy for Japanese users in urban areas. It uses one geostationary satellite and three satellites in highly inclined, slightly elliptical, geosynchronous orbits. Each orbit is 120° apart from the other two and their ground traces are asymmetrical figure-8 patterns designed so that one is almost directly overhead (elevation 60° or more) over Japan at all times.

In December of last year, QZSS inaugurated a Centimeter Level Augmentation Service (CLAS), broadcasting a signal for nationwide open PPP-RTK service in Japan and providing centimeter positioning accuracy in a minute. This increased the number of available GNSS satellites up to 17: GPS, Galileo and Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZS) satellites all-in-view are corrected by the QZS L6 signal. Designed for a 15-year lifetime, QZS-1R becomes one of four in the current QZSS system, which began offering services in November 2018. https://spaceflightnow.com

Test capability for Galileo HAS By Spirent

Spirent Communications plc has launched the industry’s first commercially available simulation test solution for the Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS), via a beta interface implementation based on HAS ICD version 1.2. During the development of the solution, Spirent collaborated with GMV. Galileo HAS will provide free-of-charge high-accuracy Precise Point Positioning corrections through the Galileo E6-B signal, with accuracy under two decimeters, offering realtime improved user positioning performance. Developers need to be able test their devices against this new service to ensure they can optimally capture the emerging capability when it becomes available. www.spirent.com

Thales and CS GROUP partnership

Thales and CS GROUP have combined their complementary expertise to offer a high-performance, resilient and cybersecure navigation system. The system comprises Thales’s TopAxyz inertial navigation unit, which has delivered outstanding performance in the especially rigorous conditions of civil aviation, clocking up over 20 million hours of operation. The naval version of the unit was integrated on a Navy vessel in less than a day by CS GROUP and has already proven its operational value for maritime navigation.

GLONASS ground station in India by 2022

The construction of a ground station for correcting the GLONASS navigation signal in India will begin next year, Sergey Savelyev, deputy general director of state space corporation Roscosmos for international cooperation, told Sputnik.