Boeing Completes Requirements Verification Tests For GPS Architecture Evolution Plan Software

The Boeing Company
today announced that the first phase of requirements verification testing for
Global Positioning System (GPS) Control Segment system software has been
completed, marking the first major milestone in the delivery of the new
Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP) software.

Boeing was awarded an increase in the scope of its original GPS IIF
contract in September 2000 to include the development and integration of the
GPS Operational Control Segment (OCS), which controls the Boeing-built llA and
Lockheed Martin-built IIR and future Boeing llF-M satellites that make up the
GPS constellation.
The OCS is a complex system of more than 1.4 million lines
of software code.
As part of the evolution plan, the system has been modified
and upgraded to convert it from a mainframe-based system to a distributed
architecture system, thereby enabling operators to monitor and control the
satellites using enhanced displays and increased levels of automation.
In
this process, more than 600,000 lines of software have been changed or added
to the included commercial software components.

“Since fall 2000, integration and testing of the system software has gone
completely according to plan,” said Boeing Control Segment Manager Bruce
Dopler.
“Now, with successful completion of this milestone behind us, we have
a formally tested and well-established baseline upon which to build GPS IIF
capability.”

Working under a subcontract to Boeing and with Boeing support, a
development team from Lockheed Martin in Gaithersburg, MD was responsible for
the majority of the testing.
The newly remodeled software will now be handed
off to the third key member of the Boeing team, Computer Sciences Corporation
(CSC), who will upgrade the software to support the new Boeing IIF-M
satellites scheduled to begin launch in 2005.
In parallel with this upgrade,
a pre-operational version of the new software will be provided to operators at
Air Force Space Command in Colorado Springs, who will begin the process of
becoming acquainted with and evaluating its capabilities in an operational
environment.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based, world-wide
navigation system that provides military and civil users with highly accurate,
three dimensional position, velocity and timing information 24 hours a day in
all weather conditions.
For three decades, Boeing has played a key role in
the design and development of the system.
In November 2000, Boeing was
awarded a contract to perform a comprehensive 12-month GPS III architecture
study that will look at the next-generation GPS and how requirements for the
system will evolve over the next 30 years.

Boeing GPS program activity is managed by the Government Communications &
Information Systems (GI&CS) business segment in Anaheim, Calif. under the
direction of Vice President and General Manager Carl O’Berry.

The Boeing Company, headquartered in Seattle, is the largest aerospace
company in the world and the United States’ leading exporter.
It is the
world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft,
and the largest NASA contractor.
The company’s capabilities in aerospace also
include rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines,
launch vehicles, and advanced information and communication systems.
The
company has an extensive global reach with customers in 145 countries and
manufacturing operations throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.