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From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.boats,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: NAVSTAR
Message-ID: <3551@phri.UUCP>
Date: 19 Oct 88 12:43:16 GMT
Organization: Public Health Research Institute, NYC, NY
Lines: 21


	In John Rousmaniere's "The Annapolis Book of Seamanship", in the
chapter on electronic navigation, the proposed Global Positioning System or
NAVSTAR is discussed: "it will consist of 18 satellites orbiting about 11,000
miles above the earth's surface.  The signals of any four of these satellites
will be available at any time to allow instantaneous pinpoint navigation 24
hours a day.  The system is expected to become operational in the late
1980's".  The book is Copyright 1983, so presumably that was written 5 or 6
years ago, when America's outlook on space was a bit rosier than it is now.

	Does anybody know if NAVSTAR is operational yet?  Were the birds to
be launched on the shuttle (in which case, I'd expect it to be several
years behind schedule) or on disposables?  Not that it makes much practical
difference; Rousmaniere estimates that a receiver will cost $25,000; it's
not likely I'll be able to afford a boat that costs $25k any time soon, let
alone a nav system.
-- 
Roy Smith, System Administrator
Public Health Research Institute
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net
"The connector is the network"