CLIFTON – With the assistance of International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), a high-tech engineering and manufacturing company based in Clifton, a space-systems project headed by Lockheed Martin passed a crucial review and is on target for its 2014 launch date.

Thanks to the continuous advances made in the technology field, many of today’s travelers have turned to Global Positioning Systems (GPS), a navigational and time-transfer technology which is now built into motor vehicle consoles, offered as a feature by cell phone carriers and available via a mobile, hand-held device.

The hub, which powers these gadgets, however, is an extensive network of satellites called the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) which circles the Earth and transmits a signal through the ionosphere. The GNSS is made up of a constellation of about 24 to 32 medium Earth orbit satellites which transmit precise microwaves and enable GPS receivers to calculate their exact location, time and velocity.

Fred Hinte, the manager of business development for ITT’s navigation unit, said the development and production contract was awarded in May by the Global Positioning Systems Wing of the Los Angeles Air Force Base.

He estimated the project would produce the first model by spring 2012 culminating with a launch date planned sometime in 2014.

The completed "payload" will generate all of the GPS signals. Included is a L2 signal devoted to commercial or civil use, the more secure M-code signal for military, an L5 signal restricted to the Federal Aviation Administration for aeronautical navigation, and the L1C signal compatible and capable of connecting with the European-proposed Galileo GPS project.

"It’s a big program and important program for us," Hinte explained. "It’s a critical utility in terms of timing and I think almost everyone on earth gets touched by it. All the communications used in banking, the GPS chip in your cell phones and the personal navigation items in cars are all synchronized with the same GPS technology."

American planters on vast Mega-Farms utilize GPS with their tractors and are able to estimate within inches where particular crops were planted the previous spring. In some areas of Minnesota, snowplows are utilizing GPS as a guide down obscured wintry passes.

Hinte considers ITT to be a "key subcontractor" of Lockheed Martin and consequently said the Clifton-based company has been "on every GPS satellite to date," allowing them to witness the amount of progress made in the field.

"[GPS technology] started in the late 1970s and as technology improved and the world changed, we’ve upgraded the satellite performance level," he added. "It’s the same kind of incremental growth you see in your cell phone or home computer technology. The government actually started talking about GPS III in the year 2000, but the satellites have been lasting much longer than planned – some lasted over 16 years - that it’s given [government officials] a lot of cushion to procure the next phase of equipment."

According to the Lockheed Martin Web site, the project will utilize a $1.4 billion budget to create the first two GPS IIIA satellites.

The next major milestone for the GPS III project is the Preliminary Design Review in May, to be followed by a Critical Design Review.

Within the next five to 10 years, several nations are hoping to launch their own navigation systems. While Japan and India have proposed regional systems, Russia’s GLONASS program and China’s COMPASS program plan to expand from regional to fully global systems. Europe’s proposed Galileo project is planned to be fully operational by 2013.