Centimeter-Level Orbit Determination for TG02 Spacelab Using Onboard GNSS Data

Tiangong-2, the second Chinese manned spacecraft, was launched into low Earth orbit on 15 September 2016. The dual-frequency geodetic GNSS receiver equipped on it is supporting a number of scientific experiments in orbit. This paper uses the onboard GNSS data from 3–31 December 2016 (in the attitude mode of three-axis Earth-pointing stabilization) to analyze the data quantity, as well as the code multipath error. Then, the dynamic and reduced-dynamic methods are adopted to perform the post Precise Orbit Determination (POD) based on the carrier phase measurements, respectively. After that, the orbit accuracy is evaluated using a number of tests, which include the analysis of observation residuals, Overlapping Orbit Differences (OODs), orbit comparison between dynamic and reduced-dynamic and Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) validation. The results show that: (1) the average Root Mean Square (RMS) of the on-board GNSS phase fitting residuals is 8.8 mm; (2) regarding the OODs determined by the reduced-dynamic method, the average RMS in radial (R), along-track (T) and cross-track (N) directions is 0.43 cm, 1.34 cm and 0.39 cm, respectively, and there are no obvious system errors; (3) the orbit accuracy of TG02 determined by the reduced-dynamic method is comparable to that of the dynamic method, and the average RMS of their differences in R, T, N and 3D directions is 3.05 cm, 3.60 cm, 2.52 cm and 5.40 cm, respectively; (4) SLR data are used to validate the reduced-dynamic orbits, and the average RMS along the station-satellite direction is 1.94 cm. It can be seen that both of these two methods can meet the demands of 3D centimeter-level orbit determination for TG02.