The Spanish company Indra has been awarded a contract for the deployment in Papeete (French Polynesia) of a new Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) Station, which will expand the Galileo ground segment. This contract was awarded by Airbus Defence and Space in the UK. The project also includes the maintenance and evolution of all TT&C stations until 2016 for a global amount of €7.3M. The new TT&C station will join the two Uplink stations (ULS) already deployed by the same company in Papeete.

Galileo’s worldwide ground segment is one of the most complex developments ever undertaken by ESA, extending from twin European Galileo Control Centres and uplink stations on remote sites across the world. They are all interconnected via a robust satcoms network.

Galileo remote sites

The remote sites include Galileo Sensor Stations (GSSs) to provide coverage for clock synchronisation and orbit measurements; ULS stations to uplink navigation and integrity data to the Galileo satellite navigation payloads for rebroadcast to users; TT&C stations to manage the satellite platforms; an In-Orbit Test (IOT) site at Redu for satellite payload testing and a trio of Medium-Earth Orbit Local User Terminals (MEOLUTs) for search and rescue activities.