@GalileoGNSS is travelling to some of the Galileo remote sites and is enjoying a lot! The pictures of the site in this post correspond to an island located in the Indian Ocean.

This is a TT&C station (Telemetry Tracking and Control). It is used to communicate with each satellite on a scheme combining regular, scheduled contacts, long-term test campaigns and contingency contacts. It is a 13-meter antenna operating in the 2 GHz Space Operations frequency bands. During normal operations, spread-spectrum modulation will be used, to provide robust, interference free operation. However, when the navigation system of a satellite is not in operation (during launch and early orbit operations or during a contingency) use of the common standard TTC modulation will allow non-ESA TTC stations to be used. In the final FOC phase there will be five TTC site (In IOV phase there were two sites deployed).

Galileo TT&C – Indian Ocean

This is the ULS (Up-Link Station). The GMS communicates with the Galileo satellites through a global network of ULS, installed at five sites. It is a 3.5-meter C-band antenna, that is, it operates in the 5 GHz Radionavigation Satellite (Earth-to-space) band. Currently in IOV phase there are five sites deployed with 2 of these antennas per site. In the future FOC phase it is foreseen to have in total nine sites with four ULS per site.

Galileo ULS – Indian Ocean

This is the Galileo Sensor Station (GSS). The network of GSS it is used to monitor the navigation signals of all satellites on a continuous basis. More precesily, they are used for Orbitography Determination and Time Synchronisation (OD&TS) function and for the Integrity Processing function (IPF). In IOV phase there are 12 sites deployed.

Galileo GSS – Indian Ocean

The landscape was wonderful.

Landscape – Indian Ocean

Also the views from the plane 🙂

Indian Ocean night view from the plane – Indian Ocean