Validation of the New GPS Master Control Station Using GPS User Equipment

摘要

On 14 September at 0523Z, the Global Positioning System entered a new epoch in satellite-based radionavigation with the transition of GPS satellite operations from the GPS Master Control Station (MCS) to a New Master Control Station (NMCS) as part of the GPS Architecture Evolution Program (AEP.) Development and testing culminated when a team composed of the members of the 2d Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS,) the 19th Space Operations Squadron (19 SOPS) and the GPS Wing (GPSW) transition from the existing GPS MCS to AEP, marking the first operational command and control replacement in the history of GPS. Recognizing the potential trepidation of the GPS user equipment community, the transition team commissioned the 746 Test Squadron (746 TS) to observe and operationally validate the backwards compatibility of the navigation message transmitted by an AEP controlled and monitored constellation. The 746 TS located at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico was chosen as it is the DoD's designated lead test organization chartered to test and evaluate GPS user equipment (UE) and integrated GPS based guidance and navigation systems. To support transition and the user community, it brought to bear more than 50 years of experience in inertial navigation, GPS, and blended GPS/Inertial component and system testing. This paper reports the results of the validation and contains operational observations as well as a comparison of post-processed user range errors from the more than 100-hours of MCS and AEP observations.