Fugro unveils commercial service like GPS for satellites

摘要

Geospatial data specialist Fugro unveiled what it believes is the first commercial service for precise positioning of satellites in low Earth orbit. Fugro, based in the Netherlands, is demonstrating its new satellite positioning service, SpaceStar, on Loft Orbital's YAM-2 satellite. Loft Orbital's YAM-2 and YAM-3 satellites packed with payloads for various government and commercial customers launched June 30 on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Satellites equipped with SpaceStar receive location and timing signals from the GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo constellations plus correction data through Inmarsat communications satellites to pinpoint the satellite's location within 10 centimeters. Fugro's proprietary algorithms offer a tenfold improvement in typical global navigation satellite system performance, Daan Scheer, Fugro's satellite positioning commercial manager, said by email.