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Hexagon, the company that acquired Leica recently has announced it’ll buy NovaTel, a company known ofr its GNSS/surveying components. One company to which it supplied such things? Lecia.
Keep your GNSS satellite calendar up to date! Russia plans to launch a Proton rocket with three global navigation Glonass satellites October 25 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The last launch in the area of a Japanese satellite was a failure and left toxic fuel in Kazakhstan; Russia claims to be making reparations.
- Novosti
The second satellite of the still-in-discussions-about-funding constellation will be delayed three months:
“The forecast launch of the second satellite in December will now be held in March 2008,” a spokesman for the launch company Arianespace was quoted by the Financial Times Deutschland as saying.
Apparently its problems with the Russian Soyuz rocket meant to get it in orbit that’s the source of the delay.
- AFP
The deal, expected later this week, will put both signals on the frequency, enabling dual access receivers. The prediction is that GPS only or Galileo only receivers will be phased out. It’s unclear if the deal will help get Galileo up and running, but the idea of 60 satellites in orbit supporting a single receiver sounds good.
- SatNews
EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot offered up three alternatives the muddled partnership that has put the project far behind schedule: “a complete EU takeover, partial public financing, or total elimination.” The choice: full EU funding.
Of interest to me are some comments made by an industry spokesperson to GPSWorld.
“The market is just not there. We were too optimistic. GPS is fine for most purposes. Besides, who gets the money from satellite navigation services? Usually the maker of the device, not the satellite operator.”
