WASHINGTON-The recent dress rehearsal for the millennium bug-the rollover of the global positioning system-was successful, said the Air Force.
“As expected, the satellite and associated ground facilities have successfully gone through the end-of-week rollover, and military and civilian GPS users worldwide can continue to depend on accurate information from the GPS satellites,” said the Air Force Space Command.
The Coast Guard also said marine craft using GPS did not appear to have experienced any major difficulties, and no rescue operations were launched because of the GPS rollover.
The 1,024-week time clock in the satellite-based GPS system returned to zero almost 20 years after its deployment in January 1980. The GPS constellation consists of 27 satellites, orbiting 11,000 miles above the earth.
Although coincidental, the GPS rollover was considered to be a small-scale rehearsal for what might happen when computer clocks worldwide reach 2000.
On a related front, the Federal Communications Commission said telecom sector readiness information is available via the government’s toll-free Y2K hotline, 1-888-USA-4Y2K.
FCC Commissioner Michael Powell, chair of the FCC Year 2000 Task Force, said making the information available was part of an ongoing effort.
“Today the telecommunications industry takes another step forward in its ongoing effort to provide the public with accurate and timely information by participating directly with the President’s Council in its information hotline initiative,” Powell said.
Other media outlets contributed to this story.
