The historic visit by Sergey Revnivykh and Ekaterina Andruschak was a first for Russian GLONASS operators and 2nd SOPS, said Maj. Charlie Daniels, director of the user-focused Global Positioning System Operations Center.

“It is truly amazing and encouraging to have representatives of former Cold War-era systems now working together to integrate capabilities of those same systems,” he said.

The GLONASS group was part of a tour of about 20 individuals from Russia, England, Europe and Japan who came to learn about the history and future of GPS and how it might integrate with other navigation systems.

“As we move to more capable space-based position and time systems, we as a global community should be able to exploit the full range of new capabilities, whatever they may be, to better support our users,” said Major Daniels.

GPS is a dual-use system consisting primarily of civil and commercial customers.

Major Daniels compared his duties with those of Mr. Revnivykh and remarked how they both face similar challenges as they figure out how to integrate efforts to better support their users.

“We have similarly unique positions where we are working with satellite flyers as well as a multitude of users to ensure we monitor system-level performance and support our users,” said Mr. Revnivykh.

The meeting of minds will help operators of GPS and similar systems enhance one another’s services, said Major Daniels.

GLONASS consists of 21 satellites. It provides 100 meters of accuracy for commercial users and 10-20 meter accuracy with military signals, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Web site, www.jpl.nasa.gov.

Although GPS and GLONASS are the only operational global space-based navigation systems, the field is expected to grow substantially in the near future.

“The Europeans are moving forward with launch plans of the Galileo system, which is envisioned as a near-GPS capability,” said Major Daniels.

There are also many planned augmentation systems on the horizon.

“Japan is planning to launch a Quazi-Zenith system to help with ‘urban-canyon’ GPS outages and first-responder issues,” Major Daniels said. “Europe has an aviation system called EGNOS [European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service]. The United States has the WAAS [Wide Area Augmentation System] run by the Federal Aviation Administration, along with many other systems that are doing great work with positioning and time. All of these systems have to work together at some meaningful level to best serve our global users.”

Major Daniels concluded the visit with the international dignitaries on an upbeat note.