50th Space Wing gains control of newest GPS Satellite: The 50th Space Wing’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron accepted command and control of the second Global Positioning System Block IIF satellite. The Space and Missile Systems Center’s GPS Directorate, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, remained in control of the satellite during a 30-day on-orbit checkout period before the hand-off to 2 SOPS. The next-generation GPS IIF satellites built by Boeing will provide improved accuracy through advanced atomic clocks, a longer design life than legacy GPS satellites, and a new third civil signal, L5 that will eventually benefit commercial aviation and safety-of-life applications

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) voted to establish a committee of experts on global geospatial information management to coordinate international dialogue on spatial data infrastructures and enhance cooperation in that field. According to the latest report of the Secretary-General on global geospatial information management, the rapid technological advances in geospatial information and related technologies have made this kind of information readily available.

The Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad of the Department of Space of the Government of India recently selected the NavX®‐NCS Professional, a multi‐constellation and multi‐frequency GNSS RF navigation constellation simulator from IFEN GmbH, as the new reference simulator for its IRNSS development and testing. The IRNSS payload system engineering group of the Space Applications Centre (SAC) in

Spatial energy continues global expansion with announcement of European subsidiary:
Spatial Energy has announced the opening of a European subsidiary at the 2011 EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) Conference & Exhibition in Vienna, Austria. With increased interest in oil and gas exploration and production, including activity in Africa, as well as in shale gas plays in Eastern and Western Europe, Spatial Energy made the strategic decision to focus on building and strengthening relationships with key EAME energy companies.

ArcLogistics update gives drivers a break:
ArcLogistics, Esri’s web-based vehicle routing and scheduling solution, has new options to route drivers more efficiently. New settings allow dispatchers to account for drivers’ daily break times, such as 15-minute and 1-hour lunch breaks. These improvements will help dispatchers better account for the actual time it takes to complete a route when creating the day’s plan.

Lennard Huisman, John Dawson and Peter J G Teunissen
The Asia-Pacific regional geodetic reference frame, presently characterized as a patchwork of national and regional datums, is below the standard that is now available, and expected, in other regions of the world such as Europe (Bruyninx et al, 2001), South America (Luz et al 2002) and North America (Henton et al 2007).

Russia invites Sweden to join GLONASS
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin invited Sweden to increase its cooperation on GLONASS satellite navigation system, during his visit to Stockholm, Sweden. Both countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in the space industry, including their intention to launch Swedish satellites using Russian carrier rockets.

Recommendations of the National Commission on Urbanization (NCU), set up in 1985, covered the aspects of emergence of nodal points; special regional characteristics of urban growth; spatial eco-tones of urbanization; spatial distribution of wheat and rice productivity and industrial employment; and spatial planning of settlements . Besides other analysis, it studied the spatial distribution of cities and urban agglomerations in 1971 and 1981 .

Expert blames poor infra for tsunami disaster: More infrastructures spending by Japan could have lessened the impact of this month’s deadly tsunami but the government has become too reliant on low-cost measures such as handing out warning maps, said Professor Fumihiko Imamura, Tohoku University’s Disaster Control Research Center.

Israel, Russia to boost cooperation in space: Israel and Russia have agreed to increase cooperation on space research and exploration. According to Zvi Kaplan, Director, Israel Space Agency, a project has been proposed which includes remote sensing of Earth from space, planetary studies and space medicine. Kaplan said that the two nations may also join forces on astrophysical research and satellite navigation.