Satellite imagery is exciting because of the tremendous amount of untapped opportunity that exists today and will remain until we can see every inch of the globe. There are so many more ways to provide transparency and to better characterize activity on our planet. Skybox Imaging, a Silicon Valley startup, gets to handle tremendous quantities of data and extract interesting patterns from that information in order to derive insight about our planet and ultimately impact humanity.

Timely satellite imagery should be able to inform daily lives and decision-making cycles of consumers, businesses and governments across our planet. While GPS has the ability to determine an object’s location at any time, satellite imagery holds the promise to reveal the context of any place on Earth at any time.

For example, Skybox Imaging envisions the most up-to-date mapping product that can allow people to determine the number of cars in parking lots and at retail locations. Business owners can monitor their worldwide facilities, understand the environmental impact of those facilities and oversee their security. Government agencies can use our product to view images alongside borders, helping them better understand conflict.

On a broader scale, Skybox is driving the demand in other areas of the satellite industry, which will hopefully mean more affordable launches and better business opportunities for us all.

December is typically the month when writers of regularly featured columns wax nostalgic and engage in a certain amount of prognostication. This year I enlisted the help of Lt. Col. Jennifer Grant, the 2SOPS/CC at Schriever AFB, the home of GPS, to help us with our year-end review and crystal-ball gazing as we look ahead to the GPS horizon. Lt. Col. Grant reminisces about her first 16 months as 2SOPS/CC, reviews numerous major accomplishments, and updates us on the status of the GPS constellation as well as the often overlooked, ever contentious and always seemingly in flux critical Command and Control (C2) segment.

By way of introduction, I first met Lt. Col. Grant when she was assigned to the Command Suite at Headquarters Air Force Space Command at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and served under the four-star commander General Robert Kehler, who is now the commander of USSTRATCOM (United States Strategic Command). At the time she impressed me as being intelligent and insightful. Her professional reputation as a perfectionist certainly supported that assessment. The next time I met Jennifer, we were both wearing different hats and serving in different roles.

Several of us on the GPS Independent Review Team (GPS-IRT) were sent by General Kehler to Schriever AFB to check in with the new 2SOPS/CC and see if we could offer her any assistance. This is a role we, the IRT, have played many times in the past, and just like the old saw concerning Inspector General (IG) visits, our mantra was and is “…we are only here to help…that’s our story and we are sticking to it.” Regardless of the perception or even trepidation over our visit, Jennifer and her staff were extremely supportive and it was abundantly clear that Lt. Col. Grant was drinking from a fire hose and doing more than surviving. She actually seemed to be handling it well and possibly even enjoying herself. While she was not new to Space Command, she was new to the GPS.

More than a year later, I and another IRT member paid Lt. Col. Grant another official visit and the transformation was nothing short of amazing. Did I fail to mention that she is also known as a quick study? In 16 months' time Jennifer went from the new kid on the block in GPS operations to a sophisticated, erudite, extremely knowledgeable and passionate advocate and supporter of the GPS and all aspects of 2SOPS operations.

The Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) team developing the U.S. Air Force's next generation Global Positioning System has delivered the program's pathfinder spacecraft to the company's Denver -area facility. The pathfinder, known as the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST), will now undergo final assembly, integration and test activities in a new facility designed to maximize efficiencies and reduce costs of satellite production.

The GPS III program will affordably replace aging GPS satellites while improving capability to meet the evolving needs of military, commercial and civilian users worldwide. GPS III satellites will deliver better accuracy and improved anti-jamming power while enhancing the spacecraft's design life and adding a new civil signal designed to be interoperable with international global navigation satellite systems.

The GNST is a full-sized, flight equivalent prototype of a GPS III satellite used to identify and solve development issues prior to integration and test of the first space vehicle. The approach significantly reduces risk, improves production predictability, increases mission assurance and lowers overall program costs. Now in Denver , the GNST will be mated with its core structure, navigation payload and antenna elements before completing pathfinding activities and checkout of environmental test facilities. The GNST will then be shipped to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., for pathfinding activities at the launch site.

"The on schedule delivery of the GPS III pathfinder is a key indicator that this program is on firm footing and poised to deliver on its commitments," said LtCol Don Frew , the U.S. Air Force's GPS III program manager. "In this challenging budget environment, we are committed to delivering the critical GPS III capabilities to users affordably and on schedule."

Nine businesses, local governments and civic groups were honored Wednesday at the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp.’s sixth annual Excellence in Local Industry Awards.

The event recognizes contributions to the community by employers, innovators and entrepreneurs, and their supporters. The recognition took place during a reception at The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs.

The winner of the Security and Defense Technology Company of the Year Award, which recognizes a Pikes Peak region company that develops products to support the military, homeland defense or space industries, was Braxton Technologies. Braxton owns a line of ground-system products that are used to operate satellites and provide engineering and support services. The company also provides technical support to Air Force satellite programs, among other programs and services.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA, 26 October 2011. Braxton CEO, Frank Backes, and Senior Technical Advisor, Dr. Triet Tran, presented an introduction to Braxton's ACE Premier(TM) product line and an overview of Braxton's newest mission planning tools at the Boeing Satellite Systems Owner Operator Conference. Mr. Backes and Dr. Tran then joined conference participants for ground system product demonstrations at the Braxton conference booth.

For the second year in a row, Braxton Technologies has made the Inc5000 list of fastest-growing private companies.

To make the list, companies had to be founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2007, based in the United States and be privately held, for-profit and independent — not units of other companies — as of Dec. 31, 2010. The minimum 2010 revenue requirement for the list was $2 million.

Colorado Springs-area companies on the Inc5000 list are:

• The WireNut, a Colorado Springs-based electrical repair and installation contractor with 26 employees that reported revenue growth of 320 percent between 2007 and 2010 to $3 million; ranked 953rd.

• Chromatic Technologies, a Colorado Springs-based manufacturer of temperature-sensitive and other specialty inks with 33 employees that reported revenue growth of 230 percent between 2007 and 2010, to $8.2 million; ranked 1,263rd.

• Maxx Sunglasses, a Monument-based wholesaler and online retailer of high-definition sunglasses with 39 employees that nearly tripled sales between 2007 and 2010 to $3.7 million; ranked 1,434th.

• Intelligent Software Solutions, a Colorado Springs-based software developer with 528 employees that had revenue growth of 180% between 2007 and 2010, to $122 million; ranked 1,536th.

• Advisors Asset Management, a Monument-based provider of services and products to financial advisers and investment brokers with 335 employees that more than doubled revenue between 2007 and 2010 to $102.9 million; ranked 2,277th.

• Infinity Systems Engineering, a Colorado Springs-based provider of advisory, engineering, intelligence and information technology services for satellite systems that employs 77 and reported revenue growth of 63 percent between 2007 and 2010 to $13.7 million; ranked 3,128th.

• Delta Solutions & Strategies, a Colorado Springs-based provider of technical and management consulting to military and government customers that employs 78 and reported revenue growth of 62 percent between 2007 and 2010 to $14.3 million; ranked 3,171st.

• Braxton Technologies, a Colorado Springs-based software developer for space communications and satellite systems that employs 80 and reported revenue growth of 57 percent between 2007 and 2010 to $14.1 million; ranked 3,300th.

The nation's newest Global Positioning System satellite has completed its post-launch checkout and entered service in the orbiting constellation. The Air Force's GPS 2F-2 spacecraft was boosted into orbit July 16 from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket.

Controllers have spent the past month getting the Boeing-built satellite prepped to transmit precision navigation and timing information to users across the planet.

"This next-generation GPS 2F satellite has been set healthy and is ready to begin providing a strong, clear and secure signal," said Air Force Col. Bernard Gruber, director of the GPS Directorate. "The Air Force and allied military forces around the world use GPS devices in virtually every system to improve their capabilities and effectiveness while reducing risk to the warfighter."

Four years ago, Colorado Springs business people and civic leaders finalized Imagine Downtown, an ambitious plan touting more retail, housing, employers and attractions for the area.

Today, supporters say the economy has made it tough for downtown to become the round-the-clock, live-work-play environment they’ve visualized, but strides have been made.

Meanwhile, a partnership that includes the majority owners of Braxton Technologies of Colorado Springs bought the Chase One building, across the street from 7-Eleven at Pikes Peak and Tejon, in June, and Braxton plans to move its 80 employees there by year’s end, said company president Kevin O’Neil. Braxton will take the building’s second floor and basement, and is looking to attract other businesses to the building, where the Vladmir Jones advertising and public relations agency is among the tenants.

The GPS 2A-22 spacecraft had been removed from active duty two years ago to accommodate the deployment of a fresh bird into the constellation. Now, the Boeing-built satellite is back in action to transmit the timing and location signals to users around the world.

"We keep on-orbit spares for exactly this purpose," said Lt. Col. Jennifer Grant, 2 SOPS commander. "The robustness of our current constellation and the recent completion of the Expandable 24 architecture provide us with the flexibility to perform replacements like this with minimal impact to global users. Expandable 24 increases global GPS coverage by optimizing the location of GPS satellites in space."

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Braxton Technologies, LLC today announced achievement of their Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 2 rating. CMMI is a framework for business process improvement that a company may apply to its standards, processes and procedures to implement practices that have proven successful worldwide. The CMMI process is gradual, and companies achieve level ratings as they institutionalize their processes.
Braxton COO, Ken O’Neil, is justifiably proud. “This is Braxton’s first step of several to come in the area of process improvement that allows us to compete and team with larger contractors as an equal partner, not just an average small business,” Ken explains. “The entire Braxton organization remains focused on, and excited about, maintaining effective processes and continuously improving on them.

The major budget cuts underway at the Defense Department and on the table in the debt ceiling deal are likely to get a strong push from at least one newly promoted DOD official: President Barack Obama has nominated Ashton Carter, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, as deputy secretary of defense.

Carter has taken a leading role in DOD efforts to streamline spending and implement widespread efficiencies tthat include his 23-point Better Buying Power program, part of broader DOD efficiency efforts established by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The next-generation GPS Ground Control system (OCX) under the direction of prime contractor Raytheon did not pass the recently concluded initial Preliminary Design Review (PDR).

Not passing this critical PDR inspection so early in the OCX process and in the current fiscal environment (Congress has already trimmed the modernization budget and shifted elements to the right) constitutes a blow to the GPS modernization effort. It adds to the worry concerning the OCX-GPSIIIA gap, having to do with the ability to launch the Lockheed-produced GPS IIIA SVs and payloads that are currently scheduled to be ready for launch a full 14-16 months before the OCX ground system was originally scheduled to be able to control the launch.

That timeline undoubtedly stretches to the right with this latest development.

Continuing a prolific partnership that has benefited billions of users around the world, the Delta rocket family today successfully launched its 50th satellite for the Global Positioning System.

The powerful Delta 4 booster blasted away from Cape Canaveral's Complex 37 at 2:41 a.m. EDT (0641 GMT) for a middle-of-the-night ascent precisely timed to deliver a critical replacement satellite directly into the GPS constellation.

Known as the GPS 2F-2 satellite, this newest bird will take the place of the GPS 2A-11 spacecraft that just celebrated its 20th birthday in orbit, exceeding the the wildest expectations for longevity.

A partnership that includes the majority owners of Braxton Technologies has acquired the former Chase Bank building in downtown Colorado Springs and plans to move the defense software company there in October to adopt a higher profile locally.

Six North Holdings, which includes Braxton majority owner The O’Neil Group Co. and other local investors, paid $5.8 million last month to acquire Bank of America’s position in the property. “This building fits our needs. We believe moving downtown will help both Braxton and the community,” said Kevin O’Neil, president of both Braxton and The O’Neil Group Co.

A Global Positioning System satellite has been loaded aboard its ride to space, arriving Monday at Cape Canaveral's Complex 37 for mounting atop the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket.

Liftoff of the GPS 2F-2 spacecraft is scheduled for July 14 during a 19-minute window extending from 2:49 to 3:08 a.m. EDT (0649-0708 GMT).

The launch is timed to deliver the satellite into the GPS constellation to replace a 20-year craft that has long exceeded its expected lifespan.

GPS satellites fly about 11,000 miles above the planet and emit continuous navigation signals that allow users to find their precise position in latitude, longitude and altitude and determine time. Originally built for the U.S. military, the GPS service has spread across the world as an indispensable commercial utility.

Ground controllers expect to have the GPS 2F-2 satellite checked out and ready for use about 30 days after launch, the Air Force says.

SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colorado — The 50th Space Wing successfully completed a two phase Global Positioning System constellation expansion, known as “Expandable 24” or 24+3, on June 15. This expansion increased global GPS coverage and is now providing civil, military, and commercial GPS users with a more robust signal and a higher probability of signal acquisition in terrain challenged environments.

“This marks another successful milestone in our continued commitment to modernize our weapon system,” said Lt. Col. Jennifer Grant, 2nd Space Operations Squadron commander. “We take great pride in providing GPS performance that exceeds our requirements for the system, which we have been doing since 1995.”

Expandable 24 is a U.S. Strategic Command commander directed initiative, executed by the 2nd Space Operations Squadron, to reposition six satellites in the current GPS constellation. Given the strength and number of satellites in the current constellation, Air Force Space Command was in a unique position to enact this revolutionary strategy to benefit global users. AFSPC acted on this opportunity to increase the robustness of satellite availability and overall signal-in-space performance by expanding three of the baseline 24 constellation slots.

April, May, and June are watershed months for space and PNT geeks every year. In April I was honored to attend the National Space Foundation sponsored 27th annual National Space Symposium held at the incomparable five-star Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and in May, just last week I attended the 10th annual GPS Partnership Council at SMC (Space and Missile Systems Center) in Los Angeles, California. Currently I am planning my strategy and greasing the chain on the mountain bike for the sixth annual Space and Cyberwarfare Symposium in the beautiful mountain village of Keystone, Colorado, which is followed later in June by the Joint Navigation Conference, also in Colorado Springs.

GPS-IIIA: OCX Updates and the Gap

Colonel Gruber provided us with an update on the GPS-IIIA program by Lockheed Martin, which is on track for the first GPS IIIA launch sometime in 2014, and an update on the Raytheon OCX program, or new GPS ground Command and Control system, due to be operational sometime in 2015. While Colonel Gruber is happy with the way both contracts are progressing, in my opinion we still have the famous “gap” that everyone goes out of their way to explain is not really a gap, but in new government speak as proclaimed by a pundit from the stage during the National Space Symposium, what we really have is “negative operational margin.”

[SatNews] Securing precise global navigation for private and military use, GPS IIF receives an increase in its operational status...

Boeing [NYSE: BA] has announced that its GPS Operational Control Segment (OCS) has gained full operational status with the U.S. Air Force 50th Space Wing, Schriever Air Force Base, Colo. OCS keeps the GPS system operational within specified accuracy to provide secure and precise navigation around the world for military, humanitarian and commercial applications.

The Boeing-led team, consisting of Lockheed Martin, Braxton Technologies and a.i. solutions, supported the Air Force in completing a comprehensive series of operational tests and evaluations that began in 2007, when the Air Force transitioned satellite operations from the previous system to OCS. The OCS system — designed to improve operations and provide new capability to GPS users — uses its distributed, open software and hardware architectures to increase operator efficiency, and the accuracy of positioning, navigation and timing. Reducing operator workload enables greater emphasis on the effective support of GPS-enabled military operations. In addition, the flexible design of the OCS system provides a foundation for new capabilities by accommodating technology improvements and new missions as required.

4/18/2011 - SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFNS) -- Officials at the 50th Space Wing accepted two Global Positioning System ground system upgrades during a ceremony here April 14.

The ceremony signified a group effort between wing, Air Force Space Command and the Space and Missile Systems Center officials and their continued commitment to improve and maintain the current GPS Operational Control Segment leading up to the next generation ground segment set to be deployed in 2015.

The GPS Operations Center announced that joint force warfighters on distant parts of the globe will soon be able to assess real-time and future GPS accuracy both where they are and where they're going, thanks to a new capability developed by the 2nd Space Operations Squadron's Global Positioning System User Operations team here. The new capability uses the Google Earth software application to display data supplied by the GPS Operations Center for warfighters on the ground in places like Afghanistan.