The Global Positioning System uses satellites orbiting Earth to help ships, airplanes, cars, and hikers determine their location with high accuracy. GPS works by measuring distances from a receiver to multiple satellites, with three or more distance measurements allowing the system to pinpoint a precise position through triangulation.
SpaceX launched three telecom satellites to orbit on September 13, marking the company's 700th Falcon rocket mission. The Falcon 9 deployed the final three satellites for Luxembourg-based SES' O3b mPOWER constellation to medium Earth orbit, completing the 13-satellite system designed for low-latency global communications.
Sophia Space and aerospace leasing specialist SLI announced a $300 million financing framework for a 10-satellite edge-computing constellation. The announcement was made in Paris on September 14.
China's Yaogan 50-02 reconnaissance satellite disintegrated in a highly retrograde orbit, creating 43 pieces of debris that will persist in Earth orbit for centuries due to their high altitude. The incident worsens an already critical space debris problem, with researchers warning that cascading collisions could trigger Kessler syndrome and pose threats to ground populations.
Starlink satellites are emitting unintended radio frequency leakage that interferes with the Square Kilometre Array Low radio telescope's observations of signals from the cosmic dawn, with researchers detecting over 112,000 emissions from nearly 1,800 satellites at frequencies where these signals are prohibited. The leakage is roughly 10,000 times stronger than the ancient hydrogen signals SKA-Low is designed to detect, and current international regulations do not adequately address unintended electromagnetic radiation from satellites even when it contaminates protected astronomy bands.
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United Launch Alliance faces financial challenges while competitors like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Rocket Lab have diversified beyond low-margin launch services into satellite production, broadband, and manufacturing. SpaceX's recent financial disclosures reveal that launch services generate only 8 percent of its revenue, with most profits coming from Starlink and AI ventures, underscoring why space companies must expand beyond rockets to survive.
Apple removed GLONASS satellite positioning support from the Apple Watch Ultra 4, which now supports GPS, Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou instead. The change may improve positioning accuracy, reduce processing demands, and extend battery life, since GLONASS's single-frequency L1 signal is less effective on dual-frequency devices. The Apple Watch Series 12 retains GLONASS support.
NVIDIA's $89 billion quarterly data center revenue signals compute is now a strategic asset, not an IT expense. Meanwhile, SpaceX, STMicroelectronics, and Latus Aerospace are building interconnected infrastructure for sovereign communications, AI semiconductors, and post-quantum cryptography, with LAES preparing a Q4 2026 satellite demonstration of quantum-resistant security technologies.
Planet Labs, a San Francisco-based satellite manufacturer, operates multiple Earth-imaging constellations capturing daily global imagery. CEO Will Marshall recently appeared with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and other European leaders, while the company's latest Pelican-11 satellite deployed via SpaceX in July joins their Tanager constellation. Planet Labs publishes open satellite data including a Disaster Data feed with freely accessible imagery from natural and man-made disasters.
GPS-01 is an interactive demo showing how GPS localization works. Satellites in orbit broadcast time-stamped signals that receivers use to calculate distance; four satellites are needed to solve for both position and the receiver's clock bias, since cheap phone clocks introduce unknown time errors that skew distance measurements.