8-4-95. NYPaper: "A Contract Is Awarded To Improve Navigation." The Federal Aviation Administration yesterday awarded a contract to greatly improve a navigation system that would let civilians pinpoint their locations anywhere in the United States to within 21 feet. The augmentation would consist of 36 receiving stations in the United States, each fixed in a precisely surveyed spot. Each station would listen electronically for the signals given off by the halo of satellites, and calculate what the satellites were saying about the station's location. But the station, bolted down, would not rely on the satellites to determine its location; it would already know that precisely. The central office, listening to all 36 stations, would establish a correction factor. It would radio the correction factor to a different satellite, one in geosynchronous orbit over the United States, meaning that its position did not change relative to the earth's surface. The geosynchronous satellite would radio a correction factor back to planes in flight, or any other user. The plane would also receive signals from the G.P.S. satellites, calculate a position, apply the correction factor and fix its location. PRA_fix