Design of the GPS III Space Vehicle

Willard Marquis and Michael Shaw

Abstract:	The GPS III space vehicle (SV) has been designed and is now being built to bring new future capabilities to both military and civil positioning, navigation, and timing users throughout the globe. Contract award was announced in May, 2008. The SV Critical Design Review (CDR) was successfully completed two months early in August of last year [1]. That marked the completion of the GPS III design phase and the production phase is now well underway with integration and test to follow next year. GPS III remains on schedule to have the first GPS III SV available for launch in 2014. This article will introduce the reader to the basic features of the new SV, elaborating on its advanced capabilities and identifying similarities and differences to earlier GPS SV versions. It will highlight the basic subsystems of the GPS III SVs which are being built by Lockheed Martin, its navigation payload subcontractor, ITT, communications payload subcontractor, General Dynamics, and numerous other subcontractors. An overview of the new signals and services on the GPS III SV, the SV simulators, and the assembly facility will also be included. The GPS III SV is the first version of the new design of GPS SVs.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011) September 20 - 23, 2011 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	3067 - 3075
Cite this article:	Marquis, Willard, Shaw, Michael, "Design of the GPS III Space Vehicle," Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011), Portland, OR, September 2011, pp. 3067-3075.
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