Chinese officials at the Toulouse Space Show have announced plans to put an Asia-wide satellite positioning system in place by 2010 to work alongside the US GPS and European Galileo programmes.
The Beidou/Compass system already has four satellites in position. It will be free to use, but will include an encrypted channel for “authorised” users.
Read More…

read more....

With EU approval for a new bidding process, Europe’s much-touted — and much delayed — Galileo, a Brussels-controlled competitor to the US’s GPS system, looks set for orbit. One satellite is being launched this weekend and the system is expected to go online by 2013. more…

The GPS Revolution: How Pocket Positioning Will Change Daily Life

read more....

“The next-generation GPS III system is expected to have about 500 times the transmitter power of the current system, multiplying its resistance to jamming,” said the defense analysis website Globalsecurity.org.
“GPS III will have second and third frequencies to contain civilian signal, more robust signal transmissions, and provide real-time unaugmented one-meter accuracy” to locate objects on [...]

read more....

When the European Union and China agreed to cooperate to develop the E.U. Galileo Satellite System in 2003, the United States reacted with strong skepticism since Washington was against the sharing of sensitive dual-use technology (with civilian and military applications) with China. In the past, the United States had tried unsuccessfully to impede the European [...]

read more....

The operational Galileo satellites will carry two types of clocks - passive hydrogen masers and rubidium atomic frequency standards. Each satellite will be equipped with two hydrogen masers, one of which will be the primary reference for generating the navigation signals, with the other as a cold (non-operating) spare.
Read More…

read more....