Colorado-based Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC has delivered an SGR-20 space GPS receiver to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be integrated as part of the pointing control system for NASA’s OCO-3 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory—3) mission.

OCO-3 will collect spaced-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar-induced fluorescence. Once launched, OCO-3 will be installed and operated on the ISS (International Space Station) Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility (JEM-EF). Surrey Satellite delivered the receiver to JPL three months ahead of schedule. OCO-3 is scheduled to launch in 2018.

Surrey’s SGR-20 is a single frequency, multiple antenna GPS receiver, designed as a spacecraft orbit determination subsystem for small satellite low-Earth orbit applications. The OCO-3 mission will use the Surrey SGR-20 for positioning information (to an accuracy of better than 20 meters) and velocity data (to an accuracy of better than 0.25 meters per second). The SGR-20 features four front ends with antennas, allowing more flexibility and redundancy for the selected mission.

According to Eugene Hockenberry, project manager at Surrey Satellite, the SGR-20 receiver is part of a highly proven range of GPS receivers that Surrey Satellite offers. These receivers are currently active on 24 Surrey satellites and have accumulated more than 700 years of on orbit experience. With this mission we will see another first for Surrey: this receiver will be the company's first space hardware onboard the ISS.