Air Force says GPS system in no danger of collapse
A report I mentioned a few days ago raised the possibility of the Global Positioning System (GPS) starting to fail as early as 2010. Yesterday, the Air Force put out information clarifying the situation and it’s not as dire as we were led to believe. Gizmodo gets to the crux of the story:
Dropping below 24 satellites was the central concern of the initial report, and the subject of all its various probability calculations: when reporters talk about the 90% chance of GPS degradation by 2017, they were actually referring to the chances of the satellite constellation dipping below 24.
The Air Force is reporting they have 30 satellites in orbit right now with another scheduled to go up later this year and another in 2010. In short, they believe they have more than enough overlap to cover any satellite that fails.
Navigate in confidence, fellow citizens!
