The 50th Space Wing at Schriever AFB, Colo., completed the transition from the legacy Global Positioning System ground control segment to the new Architecture Evolution Plan ground system last week with no disruption in service to GPS users, reports SSgt. Don Branum. Last month, officials at the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles explained the transition process, which had been in the works for more than a year. This was a critical conversion that took GPS from a 1970s-based mainframe technology to a distributed computing architecture that will ease future changes. “The control segment is what develops the navigation signal and keeps the timing signal correct,” said Lt. Col. Janet Grondin, SMC GPS operational control segment program manager. She added, “You can’t get that wrong.”
Celebrating 100 Years of Liquid-Fueled Rockets
March 11, 2026
March 16, 2026, marks 100 years since Dr. Robert H. Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket. Over the past century, new and ever more capable liquid-fueled rockets have literally propelled humanity into space. Why liquid-fueled rockets?