Author Archives: Galileo GNSS

EU must ensure greater use of Galileo

Written by Carlo des Dorides.

Galileo_EUGNSS“Europe’s investment in space delivers vitally important benefits in many areas, including science, defence and in economic growth. Innovation spills over into many sectors, creating jobs and opportunities for Europeans and European business. This opportunity is once again underlined as Galileo moves toward the delivery of Initial Services.

Despite this recognised potential, we struggle to adequately support innovation. If Europe wants to remain a global leader in space, it must become more competitive today. We cannot afford to rest on our past successes.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) actively funds innovation through EU programmes such as Horizon 2020. These initiatives that aim to keep space accessible and safe in the long run, have already made a difference. Read more…

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Ground-based Galileo satellite joins post-launch dress rehearsal

Galileo_Full_Operational_Capability_FOC_satelliteThe navigation satellite set to become the 16th in the Galileo constellation has been taken through a Europe-wide rehearsal for its launch and early operations in space.

Sitting in the cleanroom environment of ESA’s ESTEC technology centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the satellite was last week linked to a trio of sites across the continent: the Galileo control centres in Fucino, Italy and Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, as well as ESA’s ESOC operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

“These System Compatibility Test Campaigns (STSCs) occur on a regular basis,” explained Liviu Stefanov, lead Flight Operations Director for the next Galileo launch in May. “Last December saw a campaign using Read more…

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Galileo 9 and 10 broadcasting navigation messages

Galileo signalsEurope’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites started broadcasting working navigation messages 29 January. These two satellites were launched together on 11 September last year.

Once safely in orbit and their systems activated, their navigation payloads and search and rescue transponders were subjected to a rigorous process of in-orbit testing, to ensure their performance reached the necessary specifications to become part of the Galileo system.

Radio-frequency measurements of the Galileo signals were made from ESA’s Redu centre in Belgium. The site boasts a 20 m-diameter dish to analyse their signal shape in high resolution. Read more…

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Two more Galileo satellites ready for launch in May

Soyuz Fregat upper stage, Galileo payload and fairing

Another pair of Galileo navigation satellites is scheduled for launch by Soyuz rocket in May, ahead of a quartet on an Ariane 5 in the autumn, bringing the Galileo system a step closer to operational use.

The European Commission asked ESA to look into the feasibility of a Soyuz launch in the first half of the year to speed up the deployment of the constellation and to increase its robustness for delivering initial services.

One satellite is in storage at ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands, having completed all its testing to clear it for flight, with another due to join it very soon. Read more…

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EGNOS protects GNSS timing

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) announces that the EGNOS time service remained stable and properly synchronised to UTC time during a recent GPS timing anomaly on January 26th.

On the 26th of January, users of United States GPS system experienced timing issues after a number of GPS satellites broadcast incorrect UTC correction parameters. According to the US Air Force, the coordinated universal time message that was transmitted was off by 13 microseconds. During this anomaly EGNOS, which serves as an augmentation to the GPS, remained stable and properly synchronised to UTC. Read more…

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Soyuz VS13 mission

Galileo 11 and 12 on dispenser

This is a summary of the main milestones achieved in Kourou in the last days, before declaring the green light in the Launch Readiness Review.

December 10
Installation of Galileo 11 and 12 and their dispenser system atop Soyuz Fregat occurred in the European Spaceport’s S3B clean room facility. The dispenser will deploy the satellites by firing a pyrotechnic system for separation in opposite directions at the orbital insertion point.

Fregat operates as Soyuz’ fourth stage, providing an autonomous and flexible propulsion system. Built by Russia’s NPO Lavochkin, it will perform two propulsion burns during the Galileo mission with the upper stage designed to be restarted up to 20 times in flight.

December 14
Rollout and vertical positioning of the Soyuz three-stage vehicle. Soyuz was moved via a transport/erector rail car in a horizontal-transfer process from the MIK launcher assembly facility to the Soyuz ELS launch complex. Once on the launch pad, Soyuz was erected to the vertical orientation, where it was suspended in place by four large support arms, followed by the transport/erector rail car’s withdrawal. Read more…

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