Abstract :
American TRANSIT satellites have permitted improvements in the synchronization of satellite control networks. A prototype model for the decoding of time signals has been built and tested in the station of Brétigny Centre National d\´Etudes Spatiales (CNES). This system has been introduced in all the networks and as far back as 1969 an initial synchronization project was established. The rms value for each pass ("internal" precision) is about few microseconds and the relative precision, respectively, to the TRANSIT time scale is between 10 and 20 µs. Further refinements in the equipment and better knowledge of systematic errors give hope that one could obtain routinely, in the near future, an absolute accuracy of about 10 µs respective to an international scale (UTC or IAT).
