THE GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION IN SPACECRAFT NAVIGATION

A. Van Leeuwen, E. Rosen and L. Carrier

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS), developed by Rockwell International for the Department of Defense, opened a new era in navigation capabilities. GPS user equipment permits on-board, real time computation of the vehicle state vector (position, velocity, and time) with unparalleled accuracy. The superior GPS system performance characteristics provide significant benefits in the areas of spacecraft navigation, satellite delivery, experiment positioning, resource mapping, payload deployment and retrieval, propellant economies, data processing, and mission planning. This paper presents an overview of the GPS system as well as a discussion of the user system parameters governing the design of a low-earth-orbit spacecraft GPS navigation system. A specific application, the Space Shuttle orbiter GPS navigation system, is discussed in some detail, including the projected benefits accruing from the implementation of this system.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 26, Number 2
Pages:	118 - 135
Cite this article:	Van Leeuwen, A., Rosen, E., Carrier, L., "THE GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM AND ITS APPLICATION IN SPACECRAFT NAVIGATION", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 26, No. 2, Summer 1979, pp. 118-135.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In