Galileo is currently affected by a technical incident related to its ground infrastructure. The incident has led to a temporary interruption of the Galileo initial navigation and timing services, with the exception of the Galileo Search and Rescue (SAR) service. The SAR service – used for locating and helping people in distress situations for example at sea or mountains – is unaffected and remains operational.
Galileo provides ‘initial services’ since December 2016. During this initial “pilot” phase preceding the ‘full operational services’ phase, Galileo signals are used in combination with other satellite navigation systems, which allows for the detection of technical issues before the system becomes fully operational.
Experts are working to restore the situation as soon as possible. An Anomaly Review Board has been immediately set up to analyse the exact root cause and to implement recovery actions.
As foreseen in case of technical incidents, information Notices to Galileo Users (NAGU) were already published on the Galileo Service Centre website:
NAGU 2019025
DATE GENERATED (UTC): 2019-07-11 14:45NAGU TYPE: GENERALNAGU NUMBER: 2019025NAGU SUBJECT: SERVICE DEGRADATIONNAGU REFERENCED TO: N/ASTART DATE EVENT (UTC): 2019-07-11 01:00END DATE EVENT (UTC): N/ASATELLITE AFFECTED: ALLEVENT DESCRIPTION: UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, USERS MAY EXPERIENCE SERVICE DEGRADATION ON ALL GALILEO SATELLITES. THIS MEANS THAT THE SIGNALS MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE NOR MEET THE MINIMUM PERFORMANCE LEVELS DEFINED IN THE SERVICE DEFINITION DOCUMENTS AND SHOULD BE EMPLOYED AT USERS’ OWN RISK. THE NOMINAL SERVICE WILL BE RESUMED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
NAGU 2019026
DATE GENERATED (UTC): 2019-07-13 20:15NAGU TYPE: GENERALNAGU NUMBER: 2019026NAGU SUBJECT: SERVICE OUTAGENAGU REFERENCED TO: 2019025START DATE EVENT (UTC): 2019-07-12 01:50END DATE EVENT (UTC): N/ASATELLITE AFFECTED: ALLEVENT DESCRIPTION: UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, USERS EXPERIENCE A SERVICE OUTAGE. THE SIGNALS ARE NOT TO BE USED.
The European Commission has published the Galileo Service Notice #02:
GALILEO SERVICE NOTICE #02
SERVICE NOTICE TO GALILEO USERS (SNGU): 2019001 Issue: 1.0
DATE GENERATED (UTC): 2019-07-13 21:05
SNGU TYPE: GENERAL
SNGU NUMBER: 2019001*** GENERAL MESSAGE TO ALL GALILEO USERS ***
A technical incident in the Galileo ground infrastructure is affecting the functioning of the Galileo system, as a result of which there is a temporary interruption of some of the Galileo initial services. The navigation messages for all satellites are expired since 01:50 (UTC) on 12/07/2019, and according to the Service Definition Documents, users shall not use expired Galileo navigation messages.This incident does not affect the Galileo Search and Rescue service used for locating and helping people in distress situations.
The cause of the technical incident is identified and recovery actions are implemented to ensure that the nominal service is resumed as soon as possible while safeguarding quality of the services.
Galileo provides “initial services”, the phase that precedes the “full operational services” phase, since December 2016. Nominal Galileo redundant capabilities and associated service continuity functions are partially affected by on-going major deployment activities towards the Galileo “full operational services”.
Dedicated Notice Advisory to Galileo Users (NAGUs) have been published at the European GNSS
Service Centre to inform users on the service impact:
– NAGU number 2019025 on 2019-07-11 14:45 on the potential service degradation
– NAGU number 2019026 on 2019-07-13 20:15 on the service outage
Users will be informed regularly, including on the service recovery date.