On the operations floor of the GPS Master Control Station at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado, Luccio looks at feeds from a worldwide network of monitor stations and ground antennas. (Image: U.S. Space Force photo by Dennis Rogers)
The young operators on duty at the GPS Master Control Station, at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado, receive feeds from a worldwide network of monitor stations and ground antennas, monitor the GPS satellites, and send them commands as needed. This month’s cover story features excerpts of an interview with their commander, Lt. Col. Robert O. Wray, about the training and duties of his team members, the challenges they face, and what brought him to his current assignment.
Colorado Springs, Colorado, and its vicinity are home to several key U.S. military organizations.
To the northwest is the U.S. Air Force Academy, which educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and United States Space Force.
To the southwest, deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, is the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), a United States and Canadian organization charged with detecting, validating and warning of attacks against North America, whether by aircraft, missiles, or space vehicles. In a crisis, the four-star general in command of NORAD would pick up a direct line to the White House and tell the president whether nuclear armed missiles were on their way to the United States. He also commands the United States Northern Command, which is charged with defending the continental United States and Alaska.
I visited these two facilities 35 years ago, when I was a graduate student in international security at MIT. (The Air National Guard flew our group of MIT and Harvard students from Hanscom Air Force Base, near Boston, to Colorado Springs, with a stop at Offutt Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Strategic Command. One of the first Northrop B-2 Spirit, aka the Stealth Bomber, was there, under a tarp. A Harvard student decided to use the stop to go for a run. The MPs promptly arrested him and his professor had to bail him out, much to the amusement of us MIT students.)
In the southeast corner of the city is Peterson Space Force Base. To the east is the one that is of greatest interest to readers of this magazine: Schriever Space Force Base, the home of the GPS Master Control Station.
I recently visited the MCS at the invitation of Lt. Col. Robert O. Wray, Commander, 2nd Space Operations Squadron, which operates it. You can read excerpts of my interview with him here.
Wray gave me a tour of the MCS operations floor. During the tour, I was able to look at the dozens of computer monitors used by the GPS operators and to ask them many questions about their jobs. At any moment, 10 of them are on duty — eight uniformed military personnel and two civilian contractors. Later, I followed up with two members of the GPS Warfighter Collaboration Cell, which supports warfighters, combatant commands and, through the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center, more than four billion global civilian users.
Near the end of the tour, Wray surprised me with a question: “Would you like to send a command to a GPS satellite?” You can imagine my prompt answer. A moment later, I was seated at one of the consoles and entering an alpha-numeric string that I was copying from one of the screens. I was so delighted by the opportunity and so focused on entering the sequence correctly that I forgot to ask what command I was sending! Whatever it was, I assume it will help you get to your destination.
Lt. Col. Robert O. wray commands the 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS), which operates GPS around the clock supplemented by members of the 19th Space Operations Squadron (19 SOPS). (Credit: U.S. Space Force photo by Dennis Rogers)
Exclusive GPS World interview with the commander of the unit that operates the GPS constellation
The entire Global Positioning System constellation comprised of 38 satellites — with its billions of users and myriad military, commercial, consumer and scientific applications — is controlled from one room in a gray office building on a small military base about nine miles east of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The base is Schriever Space Force Base (SFB) and the room is the “operations floor” of the GPS Master Control Station (MCS). It is staffed by members of the 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS), an active-duty unit of the U.S. Space Force, supplemented by members of the 19th Space Operations Squadron (19 SOPS), a unit of the U.S. Air Force Reserve. The two squadrons are known collectively as “Team Blackjack.”
Lt. Col. Robert O. Wray is the commander of 2 SOPS and of those 19 SOPS members assigned to the MCS. On March 16, at Schriever SFB, Wray spoke at length with GPS World’s editor-in-chief, Matteo Luccio, about the training and duties of his team members, the challenges they face, and what brought him to his current assignment. He then gave Luccio a tour of the MCS and introduced him to each of the 10 people on duty. At any given time, eight of these operators are military personnel and two are civilian contractors. They receive feeds from a worldwide network of monitor stations and ground antennas, including telemetry from the satellites, that enable them to precisely monitor the satellites’ orbits and the state of their systems. The operators upload data and commands to the satellites around the clock to keep the constellation fine-tuned and respond to changing circumstances.
An abridged version of the interview will appear in the May issue of GPS World. A longer version will appear here on May 1.
USSF Lt Col Robert Wray takes command of 2SOPS. (Photo: USSF/Dennis Rogers)
The 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS), which oversees the GPS constellation, now has a new leader. Outgoing U.S. Space Force (USSF) Lt. Col. Michael Schriever relinquished command of the unit to USSF Lt. Col. Robert Wray.
The squadron conducted a change of command ceremony at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado, on July 6, officiated by Space Delta 8 Commander Col. Matthew Holston.
As the new commander, Wray assumes the responsibility of overseeing the daily operations of a unit whose mission is to operate the GPS constellation, which provides global navigation, time transfer, and nuclear detonation detection.
Col. Matthew Holston honors Lt. Col. Michael Schriver for his 2SOPS service. (Photo: USSF/Dennis Rogers)
