GPS World's intrepid editor in chief filed this month's newsletter from Toulouse, France, home of CNES, the French Space Agency, and site of this week's European Navigation Conference.

Europe's Galileo project certainly seems to be back on track, and despite recent optimism in Russia over GLONASS, it may indeed become the second fully functional GNSS, following GPS. But a few uncertainties for Galileo remain for Europe to address, among them China's Compass.

Please welcome a guest columnist this month, Alan Cameron's colleague and a contributing editor for GPS World's military and government section, Don Jewell. Don interviewed Col. Mark Crews, chief engineer at the GPS Wing, U.S. Space Missile Command, regarding GPS anomalies that occurred in October 2007 that resulted in a great deal of concern in the international user and monitoring community.

In December, the European Parliament gave final approval to the 2008 European Union (EU) budget, which includes full public funding for the system. But with money supply obstacles purportedly cleared, new hurdles loom in an increasingly murky contract-award scenario.

Budget in the Balance
In the closing moments of the year, the U.S. House and Senate Armed Services committees in conference have submitted a proposed Department of Defense budget for fiscal year 2008: the FY08 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Congress wants to get it approved before recess. The full House and Senate will vote on the Act this week — and may have done so by the time you read this newsletter.

Pointed Opinions
Ah, blue-ribbon panels. So much wisdom, so much expertise, so much sound advice. The problem is, will government (and military) follow the advice of the experts they have assembled? Experts often find something wrong with the status quo. Further problem, good policy does not always make good politics.

Leadership Panel to DoD:
Go Faster, More, Cheaper on GPS III
Earlier this month, two leading GPS experts recommended key and fundamental changes in the GPS III program to the U.S. government´s National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board.

Coming to You Live from GNSS Central
We´re here on the floor — and in the balconies, mezzanines, conference rooms, washrooms, lunch lines, and speaker huddles — of the Fort Worth Convention Center, soaking up all the technical and political knowledge exchanged between minds here: the Institute of Navigation Satellite Division´s conference, ION GNSS 2007.

NDGPS and OCX
Something old, something new, something borrowed -- no, wait a minute, that´s Galileo, GLONASS, and Compass. Let´s stick with the old and the new: Respectively, the National Differential GPS (NDGPS), and OCX, the next-next generation ground control system that will follow the about-to-be installed Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP).