Definition
Navigation, surveillance, and communication systems that use signals to or from orbiting satellites — rather than ground-based radio stations — to provide position information, aircraft tracking, and data exchange. In the NextGen environment, the primary example is the Global Positioning System (GPS) and its augmentations, which support area navigation (RNAV), required navigation performance (RNP), and Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B).
Plain English
Equipment that uses satellites in space, instead of ground stations, to figure out where an aircraft is and to share that information with air traffic control and other aircraft.
Context Anchor
Seen in NextGen discussions, especially when comparing older ground-based navigation and radar services with newer satellite-supported navigation and traffic systems.
Derivation
‘Satellite’ comes from the Latin satelles, meaning ‘attendant’ or ‘companion’ — something that travels alongside something else. In aviation, it points to the man-made objects orbiting Earth that the aircraft’s equipment relies on, rather than antennas on the ground.
Why Pilots Care
Satellite-based systems enable more direct routes, lower approach minimums, and access to thousands of airports that lack ground navigation facilities, improving both safety and operational efficiency.
Intuition Check
Do not read satellite-based systems as meaning only the GPS unit in the panel. In this context, it means the broader group of aviation services and equipment that rely on satellite information.
Example Sentence 1
Most of the new approaches at small airports rely on satellite-based systems, so we no longer need a ground-based navaid on the field.
Example Sentence 2
NextGen procedures increasingly depend on satellite-based systems to provide continuous position updates throughout the flight.