Global Positioning System Satellites

Lingering storm clouds and lightning forced military flight controllers to delay blastoff until Friday of an unmanned Air Force Delta 2 rocket carrying a military navigation satellite. Heavy thunderstorms had rolled through Cape Canaveral, Fla., during the night and, after using up most of a 21-minute launch period, Air Force flight controllers halted the countdown.

GPS gives guys something they've always wanted -- freedom from asking directions. This malady seems to plague many males regardless of race, age or sexual orientation, but global positioning system navigation units, which have gotten increasingly sophisticated over the years, haven't been a cheap cure, usually costing hundreds of dollars. This is not a normal year, however.

Technical issues have caused a delay of more than a year in a Boeing Co. contract to build a new generation of global positioning system satellites, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The first of 12 new GPS satellites is now scheduled to be launched in May 2008, the Air Force said. The initial launch had been planned for January. The Pentagon said the "more realistic schedule" was decided upon after an independent review, which also recommended adding an undisclosed amount of funding to the program.

In their cocoons of leather upholstery, soothing high-tech sound systems and automatically activated personal seat settings, drivers have come to regard their car interiors as mobile extensions of the homes that are their private refuges. The courts have tended to disagree.

As her daughter enjoyed a weekend road trip, Donna Butler sat back home 120 miles away at her personal computer and watched a blue dot tick slowly across the screen. But not slowly enough. "They were going 85 on the interstate where the speed limit is 70," said Butler, who interrupted 17-year-old Danielle's getaway to let her know, " 'I will personally come up there and drive you home.' " It would have been easy to find her.

In the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines transpacific Flight 007 strayed off course and deep into Soviet airspace over Sakhalin Island. A Soviet fighter pilot, apparently unable to see that the airplane was a commercial one, fired a single missile. The Boeing 747 went down and all 269 people aboard died in one of the Cold War's worst tragedies.

A new way of linking satellites and cellular phones in an emergency--or perhaps finding a place for dinner--got a big boost Wednesday from the Federal Communications Commission. By a 5-0 vote, the commission allowed the introduction of cell phones that use global positioning system satellites to automatically flash their locations to 911 operators.

The Pentagon is awash in obsolete nuclear bombs, mothballed battleships and surplus military bases, but out of the scrap heaps left by the Cold War has come a technology with a promising payoff. When the Defense Department laid plans in the 1970s for its Global Positioning System, a network of 24 satellites that broadcasts navigation signals to users on Earth, it was intended to help soldiers fight anywhere, from jungles to deserts.

When the description of a gold sports car fleeing a street gang fight in Adelanto cackled on his police scanner, San Bernardino County Probation Officer Nathan Scarano thought it sounded familiar. But Scarano wasn't certain the car belonged to Christopher Henry until he checked the computer tracking the global positioning system device strapped to Henry's ankle. It showed Henry leaving the June gang melee in Adelanto.

Whoever said getting back to nature had to mean leaving modern technology behind? One of the newest gadgets for outdoorsmen of all types is Blazer12, a global positioning system device that will lead you back to your favorite trail head, campsite or fishing spot. The unit--about the size of a TV remote control with a thick antenna--uses a constellation of 24 military satellites to keep track of precise locations on the ground. Simply hit the "Mark" key at a place worth returning to.

How do you know when a dog is a geek? When he's wearing the latest in doggy hi-tech bling, a GPS locater. The satellite-linked devices, which have found their way to cars, big rigs, boats and even bicycles, are now available for the canine set. Two companies are making collar-attached models that send a warning if a dog leaves its designated area. The gizmos then gives the animal's location, allowing you to find it without driving endlessly around the neighborhood, shouting its name.

A fleet of 100 cars rolled onto a Bay Area interstate Friday to begin perfecting a tool that could one day transform the lives of commuters around the world. Maybe. With San Francisco Bay shimmering to the west, university students drove the cars all day back and forth along Interstate 880. Each was carrying a cellphone loaded with Global Positioning System software. And as they drove, it beamed back signals that researchers shaped into a real-time map of traffic speeds.

In what officials are calling a first for the LAPD, detectives on Tuesday said they got a crucial and immediate break in a slaying case by using a Global Positioning Satellite system that was tracking the movements of gang members. As part of a new state crackdown on gangs, authorities last month placed GPS monitoring bracelets on 20 gang members as a condition of their parole from prison. The bracelets keep a running log of where the 20 gangs members are -- and include time-stamped mapping.

TomTom, the maker of car-navigation equipment, will use Google Inc.'s maps program so that customers can send addresses for shops and restaurants to their devices. TomTom is adding features to stay ahead of rival Garmin Ltd. in the market for satellite-navigation devices.

When the description of a gold sports car fleeing a street gang fight in Adelanto cackled on his police scanner, San Bernardino County Probation Officer Nathan Scarano thought it sounded familiar. But Scarano wasn't certain the car belonged to Christopher Henry until he checked the computer tracking the global positioning system device strapped to Henry's ankle. It showed Henry leaving the June gang melee in Adelanto.

beijing -- China said Monday that it would use global positioning satellites to ensure food safety at the Beijing Olympics as it steps up efforts to blacklist manufacturers who violate safety regulations. Wang Wei, an executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic Committee, said the high-tech system would monitor food production, processing factories and food hygiene during the Games to make sure healthy food is delivered to the 10,500 athletes in the Olympic village.

CUE Network Corp. said it has agreed to form a joint venture company to provide international paging and global positioning services in Singapore and throughout Southeast Asia. Other countries to be served by the new company, CUE Southeast Asia Partnership Ltd., include Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. CUE's partner, a unit of a the Singapore trade union group National Trades Union Congress, operates that nation's first private radio station.

In what officials are calling a first for the LAPD, detectives on Tuesday said they got a crucial and immediate break in a slaying case by using a Global Positioning Satellite system that was tracking the movements of gang members. As part of a new state crackdown on gangs, authorities last month placed GPS monitoring bracelets on 20 gang members as a condition of their parole from prison. The bracelets keep a running log of where the 20 gangs members are -- and include time-stamped mapping.

A group representing thousands of taxi drivers said it would idle cabs in September if New York City goes ahead with a plan to require the installation of GPS tracking systems. Starting Oct. 1, as the city's 13,000 taxis come up for inspections they must have the global positioning system equipment along with touch-screen monitors that will let passengers pay by credit card.

Concealed under a thick blanket of fog, Louisville International Airport emitted an eerie orange glow as Capt. James Haney lined up his heavy cargo jet for landing after a long nighttime flight from Los Angeles. As he descended, the United Parcel Service captain had an advantage other pilots don't have: a monitor in the dashboard that displayed a clear picture of aircraft plying the soupy skies around him, guiding him safely around a stream of other planes arriving from the West Coast.