The abundance of satellites is not only responsible for “an unprecedented space traffic jam” but it’s also the cause of a large amount of space debris which is increasing at an alarming rate.
According to the European Commission, over 1 million debris items larger than 1cm are currently orbiting the Earth ranging from screws and dead satellites to space rocket components. To address the issue of space congestion, Read more…
The European Union Agency for the Space Programme, EUSPA, was launched on 12 May marking the start of a new era for EU Space. Building on the legacy of the European GNSS Agency, EUSPA will take on more responsibilities to create even more opportunities from Space for EU citizens and its economy.
The adoption of the Regulation establishing the new EU Space Programme on April 27 marks a new beginning for the EU Space Programme and for the European GNSS Agency (GSA), which has now officially evolved into EUSPA, with an expanded mandate and new responsibilities.
With 26 satellites in orbit and more than two billion receivers in use, Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system has made a massive impact. But our continent has another satnav system that has been providing safety-of-life services for ten years now – chances are that you’ve benefited from it without noticing.
EGNOS
Its name is EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. Transmitting signals from a duo of satellite transponders in geostationary orbit, EGNOS gives additional precision to US GPS signals – delivering an average precision of 1.5 metres over European territory, a tenfold improvement over un-augmented signals in the worst-case – and also confirmation of their ‘integrity’ – or reliability – through additional messaging identifying any residual errors. Read more…
Ionospheric effects can be a major source of disruption to GNSS signals, so it is important to be able to predict and compensate for these disturbances. With this in mind, the European Commission-funded Galileo Ionosphere Prediction Service (IPS) monitors ionospheric activity and informs GNSS users in good time of an upcoming event that could disrupt GNSS signals and applications.
The IPS anticipates any degradation of performance, allowing operators to put in place mitigation measures in good time
The IPS monitors and forecasts solar and ionospheric activity and predicts its effect on GNSS signals and on the final performance of user applications. The Service makes it possible to anticipate any degradation of performance, allowing operators to put in place mitigation measures in good time. Read more…
We are pleased to announce the release of the new Galileo Open Service Signal in Space Interface Control Document (OS SIS ICD v2.0). This second issue of the document is available for download here.
The OS SIS ICD is geared towards Galileo receiver manufacturers and it specifies the interface between the Galileo Space Segment and the Galileo User Segment. Read more…
On 16 October 2020, Rodrigo da Costa took up his duties as Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), soon to become the EU Space Programme Agency. He was elected by the GSA Administrative Board on 15 September 2020 and met with the ITRE Committee of the European Parliament on 12 October 2020.
Rodrigo da Costa, Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency
Mr da Costa, a Portuguese national who has worked in a number of EU countries, joined the GSA as the Galileo Services Programme Manager in March 2017. In this position he was responsible for leading Galileo, the European Union global navigation satellite system, in its service provision phase. He has previously held several senior project management, business development, and institutional account management positions in space industry, in the areas of human space flight, exploration, launchers and R&D. Read more…
Introduction of the first GPS III satellites into EGNOS services was successfully achieved on 27 July 2020, following the initiation by GPS of a transition from its “GPS Block II” satellites to its new generation “GPS Block III” satellites.
The EGNOS SoL service has improved following the successful GPS III introduction
The GPS operational constellation started in 2020 to migrate from GPS II satellites to the new generation GPS III satellites. Through cooperation exchanges with the US, the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) obtained assurance on the “backward compatibility” of the GPS III satellites with regard to GPS II, and in particular concerning their failure characteristics. Read more…