Written by Vincent Reillon and Patryk Pawlak
Autonomous space capabilities play a key role for in enhancing situational awareness, response to complex crises (natural disasters), management of natural resources (water, forests), delivery of services (health, energy, transport, communication, weather forecasting), and national security. With an increasing number of countries gaining access to outer space, the EU has intensified its efforts towards adopting a space strategy for Europe. Read more…
Arianespace has successfully launched the 13th and 14th satellites of the Galileo constellation. The company’s second Soyuz launch of the year took place on May 24 at 5:48 am local time (10:48 UTC) from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana.
Today’s Soyuz success marks the 250th launch from the Guiana Space Center with its family of launchers. This total, composed of 229 Ariane flights, 15 with Soyuz and six liftoffs of Vega, confirms Arianespace’s operational performance over time for the benefit of all its clients.
The Galileo programme is Europe’s initiative for a state-of-the-art global satellite navigation system, providing a highly accurate global positioning service under civilian control. The fully deployed system will consist of 30 satellites and the associated ground infrastructure. Galileo will be inter-operable with GPS and GLONASS. It will deliver state of the art services like Search and Rescue (SAR), encrypted signals or superior accuracy time-stamping.
Written by Bogdan A. Zdrojewski.
“Over the past 50 years, Europe has had many successes on the space market. The most recent example is the Rosetta satellite mission, which was tasked with entering into a comet’s orbit and releasing a module, which landed on its surface.
Member states are aware of the potential of space technologies, but it’s important to reiterate the impact these could have on economic development improving overall quality of life, as well as the assurance of widely understood security.
In the report I worked on in Parliament’s security and defence subcommittee, I drew special attention to this last element, which is often omitted.
The EU adopted its space strategy in 2007, and thanks to the treaty on the functioning of the European Union, it has competences in the creation and support of space policy. Read more…
The European Commission has published the first version of the Galileo Open Service Signal-In-Space Operational Status Definition (OS SIS OSD) Document.
Download the OS SIS OSD Document.
The document is divided into three sections: Read more…
After placing two more Galileo satellites into orbit and receiving signals proving that they are positioned as expected, Elzbieta Bienkowska, European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, commented: “The successful launch of two Galileo satellites takes us one step closer to a global European satellite navigation system. Today we demonstrated again that Europe has state-of-the-art know-how, cutting edge technology, and the vision and determination to accomplish great things. Whether you’re hoping to benefit from the next generation of in-car Satellite Navigation – or the reassurance of knowing the coastguard can deploy Search and Rescue – Galileo will soon provide you with great opportunities.” Read more…
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) and the European Commission concluded an agreement delegating a range of exploitation tasks for Galileo to the GSA. Serving as an initial step towards the full Galileo Exploitation Phase, the Agreement provides a framework and budget for the development of services and operations through 2021.
Specifically, according to the Agreement, the GSA’s responsibilities include: Read more…