Lockheed Martin receives Laser Retroflector Arrays for GPS III SV9, SV10
07/10/2024
In partnership with NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Space Force GPS III Program Office has delivered two laser retroflector arrays to Lockheed Martin. On May 6, the LRAs were delivered under a directed program to rapidly integrate hosted payloads on GPS satellites ahead of launch call up. The LRAs will be installed onto two GPS III satellites, SV9 and SV10, in preparation for a 2025 launch.
The addition of the LRA hosted payload onto GPS satellites marks an expansion of NASA’s Space Geodesy Program space instrument network. The GPS III LRAs will allow NASA to make precise range measurements to the sub-centimeter level using the Satellite Laser Ranging technique, enabling accurate determination of the Earth’s center. The NASA Space Geodesy Program and NGA will use collected SLR data from the GPS III LRAs to maintain a globally available, high quality terrestrial reference frame.
Read more on spaceforce.mil...
The Navy and NASA are jointly preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for real estate agreements at PMRF and KPGO
05/08/2024
The U.S. Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are jointly preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of proposed real estate agreements with the State of Hawai‘i for the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) and the Kōkeʻe Park Geophysical Observatory (KPGO). Public involvement is an integral part of the environmental planning process. The public has an important role in providing input during this process to help the Navy and NASA make more informed decisions about the proposed real estate action including potential alternatives, environmental or cultural concerns, information the public would like the Navy and NASA to know, and any other information the public would like to see addressed in the EIS.
Please see this fact sheet and visit the PRMF & KPGO EIS website to learn more about the real estate action, the environmental planning process, or how to submit comments: https://pmrf-kpgo-eis.com/.
Complete Dataset from the Apache Point Lunar Laser Ranging Station Released
04/17/2024
In February 2024, NASA published a set of normal points from the Apache Point Lunar Laser Ranging Station to the NASA Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) spanning the entire operations of the station, April 2006 through mid-January 2024. This timespan includes data prior to NASA taking over stewardship of the station that was not previously released in part due to ongoing development of software related to the Absolute Calibration System (ACS) that was installed in late 2016. NASA stewardship of the station helped continue and complete the ACS software development, which prompted a re-processing of all the data to improve its accuracy.
The Navy and NASA are jointly preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for state lands at PMRF and KPGO
12/15/2023
The Navy and NASA are jointly preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to evaluate the potential impacts of real estate agreements with the State of Hawai'i, Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) for state lands at PMRF and KPGO. The Navy and NASA encourage the public to participate in this environmental review process. The Navy and NASA will be initiating a public scoping period and holding public meetings in early 2024. The public can participate during the public scoping period by providing input on the proposed real estate action and issues to be considered in development of the EIS.
View fact sheet
NASA Laser Reflecting Instruments to Help Pinpoint Earth Measurements
12/08/2023
The best known use of GPS satellites is to help people know their location whether driving a car, navigating a ship or plane, or trekking across remote territory. Another important, but lesser-known, use is to distribute information to other Earth-viewing satellites to help them pinpoint measurements of our planet.
NASA and several other federal agencies, including the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are improving the location accuracy of these measurements down to the millimeter with a new set of laser retroreflector arrays, or LRAs.
"The primary benefit of laser ranging and LRAs is to improve the geolocation of all of our Earth observations," said Stephen Merkowitz, project manager for NASA's Space Geodesy Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Read more on nasa.gov...
The National Geodetic Survey posts the results of their May 2023 local tie survey at the NASA Kōkeʻe Park Geophysical Observatory (KPGO)
10/26/2023
The National Geodetic Survey posted the results of their May 2023 local tie survey at the NASA Kōkeʻe Park Geophysical Observatory (KPGO). The survey establishes high-precision local tie vectors between the geodetic stations and their associated reference marks. Data collection consisted of terrestrial observations with an absolute laser tracker system, a total station, and survey-grade GNSS instrumentation. The local relationships were aligned to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame at the epoch date of the survey, ITRF2020 (2023/05/13). The survey results, report, and SINEX file are available at the NGS website: https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/corbin/iss/index.shtml.
