The Defense Department announced Tuesday that it would eliminate the selective availability feature on new Global Positioning System satellites. That decision coincides with the view expressed earlier this year by the National Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board. The Pentagon stopped using the SA feature, which permitted satellite operators to intentionally degrade the GPS signal, in May 2000, but the advisory group believes that the continued inclusion of the SA feature generated international mistrust at a time when alternatives to GPS are emerging.
New approaches to testing Space Force equipment are speeding up delivery to operators, but the service needs more testers and perhaps its own space-focused test center, officials said April 1. Those are key pieces of the fledgling force’s testing methods and future moves that will keep new technology flowing into…