The U.S. Military has recently approved plans to reconfigure the constellation of GPS satellites, such that the current 24-satellite constellation will be supplemented by 3 additional satellites. This will not be accomplished by the launching of new satellites, but by repositioning a few of the existing 30 satellites, to provide better coverage through better satellite geometry.
This change will not be immediate, as it is planned for implementation over the next 2 years, but we should see incremental coverage improvements during that time period. This is especially good news for the GPS surveying community, where RTK surveying requires a view of 6 satellites in order to achieve precise results.
Read more at GPS World…
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