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India`s ISRO nears deal with US based Raytheon

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, June 24, IRNA -- The Indian Space Research Organization 
(ISRO) is about to sign a major contract with a US company, Raytheon. 
According to the local media reports this was announced at the 
Indo-US space meet in Bangalore in the southern Indian state of 
Karnatka on Wednesday that the deal would be signed in the next few 
days. 
Raytheon will help ISRO install a system that will allow aircraft 
to use the constellation of global positioning systems (GPS) 
satellites of the US. 
Using special receivers, GPS signals allow one to get a positional
fix. But the signals must be augmented to provide the accuracy needed 
for aircraft navigation and landing. 
ISRO, in collaboration with the Airports Authority of India (AAI),
has come up with a system, Gagan (GPS aided geo-augmented navigation),
to augment the signals from GPS satellites. It involves setting up 
ground-based GPS reference stations and a navigational payload on a 
geo-stationary satellite. 
Gagan Project Director KN Suryanarayana Rao said Raytheon after 
getting the contract would set up the entire ground systems and the 
mission control facility. 
Rao said the navigational payload was being developed by ISRO and 
would be put in a G-SAT satellite to be launched in 2006. 
After an experimental phase for a year, the payload will be 
operational by 2008. 
Raytheon has built similar augmentation systems for the US and 
Japan. Raytheon was one of the two companies that bid for the 
contract. French company Alcatel was the other contender. 
A spokesman for Raytheon said it would be happy to be associated 
with India`s Gagan, but added that discussions were on and they have 
not signed the contract. 
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