ION GNSS+ 2026

About ION GNSS+

ION GNSS+ 2026 takes place at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Florida. The Institute of Navigation publishes a programme combining research presentations, commercial and policy discussions, demonstrations and training. This is a navigation meeting, not a general space-industry exhibition: a spacecraft team should select sessions around its navigation architecture, receiver development or mission environment. The published schedule separates Monday short courses, Tuesday tutorials and plenary, and Wednesday-to-Friday technical sessions. Exhibition opening days are narrower than the full conference dates.

The Tuesday spacecraft-navigation tutorial gives this edition a particularly practical space focus. Its syllabus covers lunar reference frames and time systems, weak GNSS signals beyond geostationary orbit, navigation on planetary surfaces and deep-space estimation. Those subjects help connect a mission-level positioning requirement with the measurements and algorithms needed to verify it. Arc’s suggested preparation is to bring a defined question, such as the evidence needed to justify a navigation error budget, and compare the relevant tutorial material with research sessions and supplier discussions.

Event history and organiser

The Institute of Navigation is a nonprofit professional society founded in 1945, serving positioning, navigation and timing communities across air, land, sea and space. Its Satellite Division sponsors the GNSS+ meeting. ION also maintains proceedings and the journal NAVIGATION, so conference material sits within an established technical-publication community rather than a standalone marketing show. Its other meetings have different emphases; attendees should not confuse GNSS+ with the Joint Navigation Conference or the separate timing meeting.

ION’s archive records the 2025 GNSS+ meeting in Baltimore, while the 2026 meeting returns to Orlando. That distinction matters when locating hotel information or reusing an old travel itinerary. The current programme also includes anniversary activities, but those do not replace the technical sessions. Past proceedings are useful preparation for following a research thread across editions; the current programme, registration page and author instructions remain the authority for what is offered this September.

Topics and themes

Use the current programme to distinguish spacecraft-specific sessions from the broader navigation tracks. The following themes provide different routes through the conference, depending on the engineering question your team needs to resolve.

• Lunar and planetary navigation: Dedicated sessions address positioning and timing beyond Earth, including onboard navigation and infrastructure for lunar missions.
• LEO-based PNT: Research examines navigation signals from low Earth orbit and their integration with communication services, constellation design and receiver processing.
• Interference resilience: Sessions consider disrupted signals and cyber threats, helping engineers frame assurance questions rather than assuming continuous GNSS availability.
• Navigation estimation: Tutorial material links reference frames, measurement models and estimation methods to spacecraft and planetary-surface navigation problems.
• Receiver and timing performance: Technical tracks cover receiver architectures, precision timing and signal processing, relevant when comparing measurement assumptions with test evidence.

Who should attend?

GNSS receiver engineers, navigation-algorithm developers, timing specialists and PNT researchers are the primary audience. Within a spacecraft organisation, the strongest fit is usually the engineer responsible for orbit determination, navigation payloads, autonomous guidance or a mission’s positioning performance. Test engineers can use the resilience and receiver tracks to identify assumptions that deserve laboratory or simulated-signal coverage. Procurement colleagues should attend with specific interface or performance questions, because an exhibition conversation alone does not establish space qualification. Researchers and early-career engineers may favour the tutorial route. Teams seeking broad launch-market intelligence or general spacecraft manufacturing should compare other events rather than expecting every GNSS+ session to serve that purpose.

Practical information

Plan around the programme you need: tutorials are scheduled for Tuesday 15 September, while the exhibition opens Wednesday and Thursday. The conference is inside the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress at 1 Grand Cypress Boulevard. Use ION’s hotel page for its authorised booking route and check availability directly; the advertised discounted block deadline has passed. Confirm tutorial registration separately before arranging your arrival.