Raytheon UK, part of RTX’s Raytheon business, has been awarded a contract to provide orbital analysts in support of the UK’s Space Domain Awareness mission.
Under the contract, the UK Space Agency will gain access to Raytheon UK’s NORSSTrack software, which enhances orbital analysis and operational responsiveness by mapping and tracking satellites, monitoring potential collisions and debris, assessing re-entries and providing critical data for decision-making.
The analysts will be based at a National Space Operations Centre facility at Royal Air Force Base High Wycombe.
As highlighted in the UK’s Strategic Defence Review, space domain awareness is central to protecting critical space assets and strengthening resilience across government, defense and industry. It is considered a vital national capability, ensuring the UK can operate safely, securely and confidently in an increasingly contested space environment.
QinetiQ and Xona Space Systems have demonstrated how GPS navigation can be bolstered by using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, in the first UK tests of Xona’s new satellite navigation system, Pulsar.
This marks a major milestone in the development of next-generation positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities, increasing resilience against jamming and spoofing, as well as improving GPS availability in congested or challenged environments.
In the tests, QinetiQ’s Q40 multi-constellation GNSS receiver acquired and tracked signals from Xona’s first production-class satellite, Pulsar-0. The tests demonstrated that, by supplementing GNSS with LEO satellite signals like the Pulsar X1, enhanced resilience in contested or poor-signal environments can be achieved.
A recent software upgrade to QinetiQ’s Q40 was developed under the European Space Agencies’ Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP) in the GNSS Receiver with Advanced Pulsar Enhancement (GRAPE) project.
GRAPE is a collaboration between QinetiQ and Xona, supported by the UK Space Agency and European Space Agency. Its goal is to explore how new LEO-based signals can be integrated with existing GNSS, to enhance the accuracy and resilience of navigation services for defense, critical infrastructure and future autonomous applications.
“For the first time, we have demonstrated how signals from new LEO satellites can be used alongside existing GNSS to give users stronger, more resilient timing and position information,” said Chris Walker, Managing director, Mission Systems Division, QinetiQ. “This is a huge step in increasing the protection of our defence, critical infrastructure and future autonomous systems against interference.”
The rotation-corrected integrated POD method holds significant promise for global navigation augmentation, autonomous LEO-based navigation systems, and real-time positioning services.
Modern satellite constellations such as OneWeb, Starlink and CENTISPACE promise global communications and navigation capabilities using low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellations. However, their precise orbit determination (POD) requires dense ground station networks — costly and often limited by geopolitical or geographical constraints.
Inter-satellite links (ISLs) help reduce ground dependence but suffer from “rotational unobservability,” where the entire constellation drifts in orientation due to the lack of an absolute spatial reference. Existing fixes often require additional infrastructure or high-quality GNSS products, which increase latency and operational complexity.
Because of these challenges, a more autonomous, low-latency approach that leverages existing onboard capabilities is needed to ensure reliable, high-accuracy orbits for mega-constellations.
Wuhan University researchers have developed and validated a rotation-corrected integrated POD method that fuses ISL measurements with onboard BeiDou-3 (BDS-3) GNSS observations. Published (DOI: 10.1186/s43020-025-00175-8) in Satellite Navigationon Aug. 4, the study demonstrates how the technique simultaneously estimates the orbits of LEO and BDS-3 medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) satellites, corrects systematic rotation using BDS-3 broadcast ephemerides, and achieves centimeter-level precision.
The approach significantly reduces reliance on ground stations, making it well-suited for real-time applications in large-scale LEO constellations, the researchers said.
The team simulated a 66-satellite LEO constellation equipped with ISLs and onboard BDS-3 receivers, alongside 24 real BDS-3 MEO satellites. Two processing strategies were tested: using BDS-3 data from all LEOs, and from only a subset. In both cases, ISL and GNSS data were jointly processed to form a unified high–low constellation.
Due to internal-only measurements, the initial solutions exhibited significant systematic rotation — up to 40 cm cross-track error for LEOs and over 1 meter for MEOs.
This innovation could become a cornerstone technology for integrating LEO constellations with existing GNSS systems to enhance global navigation and timing performance.
The researchers derived rotation angles between the integrated POD coordinate frame and the BeiDou Coordinate System implied in broadcast ephemerides, then applied a Helmert transformation to correct the orbits. After correction, LEO along-track and cross-track errors dropped from 22.7 cm and 39.3 cm to 1.3 cm and 4.2 cm, respectively. MEO errors fell from over 1.2 m to about 13 cm.
Even when only 36 of 66 LEOs carried GNSS receivers, ISL connectivity propagated the correction across the constellation with minimal accuracy loss. Tests also examined the influence of predicted Earth rotation parameters and residual errors in broadcast ephemerides.
“This method tackles one of the most stubborn issues in autonomous constellation orbit determination — systematic rotation caused by the lack of absolute spatial reference,” said Kecai Jiang, corresponding author of the study. “By harnessing readily available BDS-3 broadcast ephemerides and inter-satellite measurements, we can deliver centimeter-level precision without waiting for post-processed GNSS products or building extensive ground networks. This approach is not only efficient but also scalable, paving the way for real-time, high-accuracy navigation services in future mega-constellations.”
The rotation-corrected integrated POD method holds significant promise for global navigation augmentation, autonomous LEO-based navigation systems, and real-time positioning services. By dramatically reducing reliance on ground infrastructure, it enables resilient operations in remote or geopolitically constrained regions. Its scalability makes it suitable for next-generation satellite constellations supporting broadband internet, disaster response, and precision agriculture, the researchers said.
Moreover, the ability to achieve near-uniform accuracy across all satellites — even when only part of the constellation carries GNSS receivers — lowers hardware requirements and operational costs. This innovation could become a cornerstone technology for integrating LEO constellations with existing GNSS systems to enhance global navigation and timing performance.
Neuraspace is working with the European Space Agency (ESA) to use innovative GNSS technologies to minimize signal noise under a new NAVISP project. Neuraspace is an expert in space domain awareness (SDA) solutions,
“Stop Getting Noise – Automated GNSS Processing for Smarter Orbits” (NAVISP Element 2) seeks to address critical operational challenges faced by commercial satellite operators, launch service providers and defense and government agencies.
Challenges to be addressed include the urgent need for more scalable, accurate and autonomous orbit determination, particularly for satellite mega-constellations, in an increasingly congested space environment. While defense and government agencies demand high-confidence SDA solutions amid increasing geopolitical tensions, satellite operators require reliable orbit tracking and early mission support.
The result is expected to use innovative GNSS technologies to reduce the risk of satellite collisions and enable satellite operators to make faster and more accurate decisions about safekeeping their assets. Solutions will also lead to more efficient operations with lesser reliance on ground infrastructure and smarter fuel management translating into lower mission costs.
In particular, the project includes:
GNSS Data Cleanup to remove biases and noise to improve the precision of orbit determination.
GNSS Orbital Phase Correction by introducing lightweight onboard algorithms designed to run on resource-constrained satellite systems. The algorithms will use real-time data to enable satellites to autonomously correct trajectory predictions and minimize reliance on ground stations, saving time and resources.
GNSS Orbit Determination Accuracy to provide better orbit predictions by developing advanced methodologies to deliver critical positioning information for safe operations and maneuver planning.
The newest addition to the network of Galileo sensor stations (GSS) is up and running in Wallis and Futuna, a French territory in the South Pacific consisting of three main islands and many tiny islets. It enables increased Galileo coverage in the southern hemisphere.
The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) reported that the decision for the new station was made in June 2020; however, due to COVID-19, its deployment did not begin until summer 2022. In October 2022, the second mission to Wallis and Futana took place to complete the deployment and connect the station to the ground mission segment network for data collection.
The GSS is a network of antennas deployed at remote locations around the world. They have small, omnidirectional receiving antennas 50 cm high that check the accuracy and signal quality of individual satellites and pinpoint current satellite orbits. Establishing GSS is difficult and requires security accreditation by EUSPA’s Security Accreditation Board.
To make the best use of the Galileo services, users rely on more than just the satellites. Dedicated facilities such as the Galileo control centers, sensors, and uplink stations are important components that make up the Galileo ground segment — which supports the service provision of Europe’s GNSS. The GSS is an important element of Galileo’s ground segment.
Space Tech Expo Europe will make its return to Bremen, Germany November 15-17. The full agenda has been released, detailing the speakers, sessions and pressing topics that will help to shape the future of a thriving space industry.
Space Tech Expo Europe provides attendees with fundamental knowledge on current industry trends, challenges, and opportunities in unmissable discussions from technical-level experts from across the supply chain. The expo boasts over 100 speakers, over 450 exhibitors and three separate conferences over three days.
Conferences
The Industry Conference at Space Tech Expo Europe provides audiences with critical insights into the latest updates and key trends happening in the European (and beyond) space sector, aiming to help shape the future of our thriving industry.
Sessions taking place at the Industry Conference will shed light on the sector’s most pressing matters, including industry developments, investment, space exploration, launch, digitalization, the in-space supply chain, space sustainability, and much more.
The Smallsats Conference at Space Tech Expo Europe enables the small satellite community to meet and explore the most exciting developments in the market. Here, the upstream small satellite technology providers, downstream service providers and end-users come together to address the sector’s biggest trends. Topics will include launch and propulsion, increasing satellite manufacturing capabilities, standardization, exploring downstream applications of remote sensing data, creating actionable data insights, and space cyber security.
The Mobility Connectivity Conference at Space Tech Expo Europe bridges the gap between merchant shipping, cruise shipping and commercial aviation’s connectivity requirements, and the technical solutions satellite operators, service providers and ground network providers can now offer through a developing and maturing space and ground technology infrastructure.
Topics include passenger expectations following the pandemic, crew welfare optimization through advanced communication systems, high-data transfer in remote areas, optimized terminals and antennas, hybrid network solutions and advanced onboard communication technology.
GNSS receivers face the same old challenges (extremely weak received signal, orbit and satellite clock errors, ionospheric and tropospheric delays, multipath, dilution of precision, urban canyons, etc.) and new ones (increased interference). However, compared with just a few years ago, they benefit from new signals, many more satellites, a panoply of options for corrections, and improved integration with inertial navigation systems (INS).
For example, pole-tilt compensation is quickly becoming standard. This feature enables users to locate dangerous or hard-to-reach points by measuring them at an angle with just the tip of the pole to which the receiver is attached.
Pole-tilt compensation also makes surveying and mapping easier by removing, in many situations, the need to use total stations or offsets. Together with improvements in work processes, this makes GNSS receivers more user friendly. This is particularly welcome now that more surveyors are retiring than there are new surveyors entering the profession.
The greater accuracy of GNSS receivers enabled by the increase in the number and quality of satellites, signals, corrections services and integration of GNSS with other sensors is also increasing the number of use cases, especially at the high end of the accuracy requirements, such as lane-level vehicle navigation. (Next month’s cover story will center on this year’s Google Smartphone Decimeter Challenge contest, in which competing teams aim to bring smartphone location down to the decimeter or even centimeter resolution using raw location measurements from Android smartphones. This could enable services that require lane-level accuracy, such as estimated time of arrival when using a high-occupancy vehicle lane.)
This month’s cover story highlights what has changed “inside the box” to improve the accuracy and resilience of GNSS receivers for surveying, mapping and a variety of other applications. Read the success stories from five different companies below.
Hackers in China managed to gain entry into satellite operators, defense contractors and telecommunications companies in the United States and southeast Asia, reports Reuters.
Reuters spoke with security researchers at Symantec Corp. ahead of public release of a security report. The hackers have been removed from infected systems.
The hackers breached computers that controlled the satellites, including access to orbital systems, Symantec said. GNSS, communication and other data transmissions rely on specifically situated satellites.
Symantec said it has already shared technical information about the hack with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security.
New radiation-tested, tactical-grade MEMS inertial accelerometers designed for spacecraft electronics testing
Silicon Designs Inc. has launched the Model 1527 series, a family of miniature, radiation-tested, tactical-grade micro-electromechanical (MEMS) inertial accelerometers.
Offered in three full-scale acceleration ranges — ±10 g, ±25 g and ±50 g — the series is designed to support a variety of critical space electronics testing requirements, including those of spacecraft, satellites and CubeSats.
In addition, their small bias and scale-factor temperature coefficients, excellent in-run bias stability, and zero cross-coupling make the Model 1527 series particularly well-suited for spacecraft electronics testing applications requiring low power consumption (+5 VDC, 6.5 mA), low noise, long-term measurement stability in –55° C to +125° C environments, and performance reliability under intermittent radiation exposures.
Radiation test report data, as generated during internal qualification testing, is available on request.
The rugged design of the Model 1527 series combines a tactical-grade MEMS inertial sense element with a custom integrated circuit, internal temperature sensor, onboard sense amplifier and ±4V differential analog output stage. The MEMS inertial sense element and internal components are housed within a lightweight, hermetically sealed, nitrogen-damped, miniature, RoHS compliant, J-lead LCC-20 surface mount ceramic package (U.S. Export Classification ECCN 7A994), weighing 0.68 grams.
Its compact and lightweight footprint allows for ease of accelerometer installation within space-constrained environments, as well as minimization of mass loading effects. Each Model 1527 Series accelerometer is marked with a serial number for traceability on both top and bottom surfaces.
All Silicon Designs’ Model 1527 Series tactical-grade MEMS inertial accelerometers are designed, manufactured, performance-verified and calibrated in-house at the company’s global corporate headquarters and R&D center outside of Seattle, Washington. Product performance documentation is supplied at the time of shipment, including residuals, thermal sensor model, acceleration model, bias, scale factor, linearity, operating current and frequency response data.
Three decades after it first entered popular culture during the Gulf War, even a cursory review of articles about GPS aimed at a mass audience still will reveal a plethora of inaccuracies and misunderstandings, ranging from the trivial to the fundamental. Among my pet peeves, some for 20 years, are statements to the effect that GPS:
1. is a tracking technology
2. is the only such system
3. is responsible for routing errors
4. can operate indoors
5. receivers “talk” to the satellites
6. relies on triangulation
7. has 24 satellites in orbit
(For those of you picking up this magazine who are new to satellite navigation, the correct versions of those statements are below.)
Matteo Luccio
Additionally, GPS is taken for granted, with hardly any recognition for the engineers, technicians, U.S. Air Force service members and others who make the miracle happen, and for the fact that U.S. taxpayers foot the nearly $2 billion annual bill for the system, which is offered free to users worldwide. (All GPS program funding comes from general U.S. tax revenues. The bulk of the program is budgeted through the U.S. Department of Defense, which has primary responsibility for developing, acquiring, operating, sustaining and modernizing GPS. The U.S. Department of Transportation is responsible for funding the extra costs associated with new, civilian GPS upgrades beyond the second and third civil signals, and agencies with unique GPS requirements are responsible for funding them.)
While not as deadly as those about vaccines or as consequential as those about elections, misstatements about GPS lead to public confusion about threats to privacy and threats to the system. To help secure GPS, it behooves those of us who understand it the most to help educate the rest about it and correct misstatements, misunderstandings and misperceptions.
Tracking a person, vehicle or other object requires pairing a GPS receiver with a transmitter, typically a cellular phone.
It is one of four complete global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), the other three being the Russian GLONASS, the European Galileo and the Chinese BeiDou-3. There are also two regional systems, one Indian and one Japanese.
Routing errors are caused by bad map data or bad routing algorithms.
It requires a clear view of at least four satellites, unimpeded by terrain, buildings, roofs or even dense tree canopies.
GPS receivers are just that and have neither the need nor the ability to transmit messages back to the satellites.
Triangulation determines position by measuring angles. By contrast, GNSS determine position by measuring distances (between receivers and satellites), which is called trilateration.
The are currently 30 operational GPS satellites and the number varies as some satellites are temporarily removed from service, older ones are decommissioned, and new ones are placed in orbit. Find the current status of the constellation here.
The 2018 GPS World Leadership Awards, presented in September, recognized significant recent achievement in Satellites, Signals, Services and Products. The Awards Dinner and Ceremony was sponsored by Harris Corporation, Rockwell Collins and Spirent Federal Systems.
Check out a photo slideshow and videos from the event below, as well as speeches from each of the award winners.
Giuliano Gatti | Space Segment Procurement Manager, European Space Agency
Gatti received the award for his contribution to setting up the Galileo constellation from GIOVE-A and -B precursors through all Galileo operational satellites: Soyuz and Ariane 5 launches, a total of 26 Galileo satellites deployed in 7 years.
Javier Benedicto, head of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency, accepted the award and delivered these remarks on behalf of Gatti.
Scott is the inventor of an asymmetric navigation security paradigm for civil GPS signals that avoids the need for secure key storage in civil receivers and allows for widespread adoption in applications without physical security capabilities.
John Raquet | Director, Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center (ANT), U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology
Raquet’s team has developed PNT sensors and systems utilizing GPS, GNSS, inertial, vision, lidar, magnetic field, pseudolites, radar, terrain mapping, signals of opportunity, star trackers, radio ranging, 3D audio, X-ray pulsars, clocks, and more.
Andrew Simsky, Wim De Wilde, Jean-Marie Sleewaegen and Tom Willems | Navigation Algorithms Software Engineer, System Designer, System Architect, and Senior Researcher, Septentrio
The Septentrio team received this award for developing the versatile PolaRx5 receivers, enabling many Earth-observing applications including worldwide ionosphere monitoring.
Click the symbol in the top left hand corner to choose the video you’d like to view.
Words from our sponsors
Satellites. “We have seen our military and professional users looking to greater flexibility in their use of GNSS, as new capabilities and constellations come on line. But with that flexibility, a retention of assurance and where possible, mitigation of threats. For this reason Rockwell Collins and QinetiQ signed an agreement to produce a new family of high-assurance, multi-constellation GNSS receivers for professional and military use.
“This new family of receivers, complementary to the current encrypted family of Rockwell Collins receivers in service across the globe, allows the customer to select level of capability and protection based upon their operational, political or even financial needs. The new MICRO family of GNSS receivers will offer a multi-constellation open service (MCOS) GNSS capability, which will initially provide two receivers; the Q40-MicroPNT will address dismounted low-dynamics requirements, and the Q40-MicroSTRIKE will be a gun-hard, high-dynamics receiver.” —Phil Froom, Rockwell Collins
Signals. “For over thirty years, we’ve overcome challenges and delivered GPS payloads that provide a technology the world uses every day. We’ve gotten to the point where we can honestly say, almost nothing works without GPS. The challenge that I see [for the future] is to overcome the politics: Where do governments of GNSS draw the line between doing what’s right for a PNT solution for the common good of humanity globally versus addressing your national security and protecting your own country? Truth is, because of politics, year after year our government has been forced to start the fiscal year with a continuing resolution because our politicians can’t approve a budget.” —Joe Rolli, Harris Corporation
Services. “We’ve been manufacturing GPS simulators for the past 30 years. This year we launch a new product, SimMNSA. We’re currently in the final test phase of this new M-code option and we’ll be delivering to several authorized customers by the end of the year. We also offer products that simulate all other GNSS signals, plus a variety of other sensors.” —Ellen Hall, Spirent Federal
The main objective of this work is to investigation the feasibility and performances of LEO communication satellite constellations as potential navigation augmentation platforms. The further examination of the existing and upcoming LEO communication satellite constellations has been conducted, such as Iridium, Globalstar, Teledesic, One Web, Boeing, SpaceX, Samsung, etc. The comprehensive performances of LEOs for navigation augmentation are evaluated and analyzed in terms of constellation characteristics, footprint, coverage, signal strength, dilution of precision (DOP, including GDOP, PDOP, VDOP, HDOP), and number of in-view satellites, with comparison of these to the current GPS, Galileo and BeiDou systems. The results showed that LEOs present superior performances compared with GNSS systems, and demonstrate promises as navigation augmentation platforms for challenging environments.
Moreover, the real-time signal-aided navigation method is explored, from user geometry and signal ranging errors to position errors. Then, we proposed a navigation system based on signals of opportunity from LEO platform. The proposed system relay on a terrestrial benchmark network consists of several monitoring stations with time synchronization. It would acquire the downlink communication signal from LEO platforms, and then estimate the time difference of arrival (TDOA) between stations with a correlation-based blind detection algorithm. The TDOA estimations and geographical position information are utilized to develop the time-delay-based spatio-temporal distribution model, which can determine the user’s position by matching the model with its estimated TDOA values. The proposed navigation system can operate stand-alone and facilitates the integration of communication and navigation system.
