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What are the names/nicknames of the satellites that provide GPS signals?


Paul Ag

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We owe our respect to the satellites which provide navigation and positioning aides to our sport. I cannot find this detail anywhere. Something that costs millions of dollars should have an offically name other than satellite No. 5.

Does anyone know the names of each satellite? I was going to make a cache in their honor.

 

I can explain it to you; but I can't make you understand it.

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The first 2 actually did have names SVN#1 was Elvis and SVN#2 was Janis then things simply went SVN3(PRN6), SVN4(PRN8), SVN5(PRN5) etc etc rather dull but the numbers have it.

 

By the way both SVN1 & 2 have passed on.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost icon_smile.gif everybody keeps telling me where to go icon_wink.gif

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icon_wink.gifI have all kinds of names for the satellites, especially when I lose their signals in the trees, or I get signal bounce, etc., but since this is a family activity, I won't share them here.

 

"Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles. What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?"--George Eliot

 

MnGCA-Button.gif

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According to the satellite tracking program that I use, they are named such boring things such as:

GPS BIIA-12 (PRN 25), GPS BIIA-18 (PRN 22), and such.

(Nova for Windows Software... NLSA.com)

 

I like Lerches names better.

 

Laugh now, but I've got plenty to do when I'm the last person on the planet

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quote:
Originally posted by Lerch:

My brother works at the northern most location for tracking satellites and he said only nine of the twelve are named. 1.) Dasher. 2.) Dancer. 3.) Donner. 4.) Blitzen. 5.) Comet.

6.) Cupid. 7.) Prancer. 8.) Vixon. And.....The most famous of all,. 9.) Rudolph.


 

Your joking, right?

 

I can explain it to you; but I can't make you understand it.

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quote:
Originally posted by Kerry:

The first 2 actually did have names SVN#1 was Elvis and SVN#2 was Janis then things simply went SVN3(PRN6), SVN4(PRN8), SVN5(PRN5) etc etc rather dull but the numbers have it.

 

By the way both SVN1 & 2 have passed on.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost icon_smile.gif everybody keeps telling me where to go icon_wink.gif


 

dadgum you are right. It is still hard to believe there are no other nicknames. There are always nicknames. Someone knows!!

 

Fromhttp://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/operate/ds/navigation.htm#N_6_ The scoop on nicknames.

 

In the aftermath of the Challenger accident, the Air Force decided to remove the Navstars from the Shuttle manifest, and to launch them on an improved version of the proven Delta launch vehicle, known as the Delta II. A total of 20 of these rockets were ordered. With the launch of five new Navstar satellites in 1989, the Air Force began to implement the full complement of 21 active and 3 spare satellites will be required for the system can provide nearly continuous global coverage.(5) Although the first two satellites launched had been nicknamed Elvis (Presley) and Janis (Joplin), this practice ceased with the third and subsequent launches.(6)

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I guess NASA just isn't a very creative bunch!

 

Recently, while writing a GPS application, I wanted to use a common name for each satellite beyond the number, and was surprised and disappointed to learn this. Instead, I just pulled a bunch of names from Greek literature and assigned them arbitrarily to the satellites. It's so much easier to remember that the three satellites above you are Terpsichore, Demeter, and Hyperion than Satellites #23, 12, and 2. icon_smile.gif Still, it's completely arbitrary, and if someone (*ahem* us?) came up with some fairly commonly-accepted names, I'd love to use them.

 

David Stein, Esq.

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You want a dead one or a live one?

 

SVN5(PRN5) lost Nav (lost nav sounds better than saying it's dead, but it's dead) Nov 28, 1983, it lost its wheels frog.gif. Was a poor performer only managing 3 odd years, now lost in space.

 

Actually #'s fit real well with many things.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost icon_smile.gif everybody keeps telling me where to go icon_wink.gif

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