India May Quit Galileo

According to subcontinent press sources including the Times of India, India’s participation in the Galileo project has run into the hard-ground realities of security concerns. India apparently fears that sharing of sensitive data may not be adequately firewalled from individuals and other nations participating in the enterprise. While Indian military and civilian facilities are currently open to surveillance by US and other satellites used for military purposes the Galileo project poses the problem of uncertainty over data users. India signed up to the thirty-satellite landmark space navigation project in September last year. The details of Indian participation were to be... (read more)

2006-10-18 12:00:00

Procurement Galileo System

The European Commission - with the support of ESA - has launched the procurement of Galileo, a global navigation system composed of 30 dedicated navigation satellites and a ground infrastructure with the main control centres in Europe and a network of dedicated stations deployed around the world. The overall programme objective for Galileo is the deployment, by 2013, of a European navigation system providing five main services, namely the Open Service, the Safety of Life Service, the Commercial Service, the Public Regulated Service, and the Search and Rescue Service. Political decisions made by the European Parliament and the Council last... (read more)

2008-07-02 12:17:44

Galileo Ground Network Laid

As Europe prepares for October 2011 launch of the first Galileo satellites, a worldwide ground network is being put in place. Contracts signed in June 2011 cover satellite control and the systems needed to generate Galileo services. Europe's satellite navigation system will begin to take shape in space later this year, when the first two Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites are launched by the first Soyuz flown from French Guiana. Out of six Work Packages for Europe's satnav system to reach full operations, four are already in place. The remaining two were signed during the Paris Air & Space Show... (read more)

2011-07-01 11:59:44

Onboard Galileo Atomic Clocks

Current Status and Performance

The European Commission and the European Space Agency have approved the Galileo GNSS programme. Two experimental satellites will be launched in late 2005 or early 2006. Atomic clocks are critical for satellite navigation. After more than ten years of development and an overall budget of € 30M, two onboard clock technologies have been qualified. The author considers their current status and performance. Galileo is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) for building a state-of-the-art global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Galileo will provide a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control and... (read more)

2005-11-28 12:00:00

Ukraine in on Galileo

The European Commission has received the go-ahead to open negotiations with Ukraine on a 'co-operation agreement' relating to the development of Galileo, Europe's satellite navigation system. The agreement would comprise multilateral and industrial co-operation, research and scientific activities (particularly relating to standardisation), regional integrity monitoring and financial investment in Galileo. The EU has already signed agreements with China and Israel, while discussions are underway with India, Russia, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Australia. An agreement with the US has also been signed that ensures Galileo's compatibility with the US Global Positioning System. (read more)

2005-03-16 12:00:00

Positive Signals For Galileo

The in-orbit validation programme for Galileo, Europe's global satellite navigation system, is celebrating three years since the first signal was broadcast by the GIOVE-A satellite. The programme has been gathering momentum since the launch of the GIOVE-A satellite and its success in securing the critical Galileo frequency filing with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) before the filing expired in June 2006. Originally designed for a 27 month mission, the satellite has already been operating for more than 3 years. During this period, as well as securing the ITU filing, GIOVE-A has successfully shown that Galileo is technically feasible by... (read more)

2009-01-16 12:04:06

Galileo Interoperable with GPS

ESA’s first two Galileo navigation satellites in space have achieved their latest milestone, transmitting dummy signals in a modulation scheme designed to allow full interoperability with the US GPS once operational services start. An advanced modulation technique offers robust protection against signal interference and the misleading signal reflections known as ‘multipath’. The first two Galileo satellites were launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana into medium orbits on 21 October 2011, and since then have been progressively put through their paces in a series of tests. These satellites are serving to validate the Galileo system design as well as being... (read more)

2012-07-17 12:00:00

JAVAD GNSS Tracks Galileo

JAVAD GNSS receivers successfully tracked all Galileo satellites from Spirent simulator and produced Galileo-only and triple satellite (Gps+Glonass+Galileo) positions. Up to 27 satellites were traked simultaneously. The experiments were performed jointly by Spirent and JAVAD GNSS. (read more)

2009-08-21 04:11:00

Galileo Contract for NovAtel

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded NovAtel (Canada) a CDN$ 1.6 million (US$ 1.34 million) Space Technology Development Program (STDP) contract to extend an initial proof-of-concept prototype Galileo receiver. Galileo is the European Union GNSS system, expected to be fully operable by 2008 with up to thirty satellites. Funding for this contract will be split 60/40 respectively between the CSA and NovAtel. Under the terms of the contract NovAtel will develop L1/E5A engineering receivers and L1/E5A transmitters for CSA evaluation and possible monitoring of prototype Galileo satellites. The new receiver will be integrated into a modified version of NovAtel's... (read more)

2005-03-16 12:00:00

First Galileo Satellite Repositioned

Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), UK, has completed the repositioning of the first Galileo test satellite, GIOVE-A, to a higher orbit to make way for the operational satellites of Europe's satellite navigation constellation. From the GIOVE-A operational headquarters, the operating team executed a series of precisely planned manoeuvres during July and August that have repositioned the satellite 113km above the orbit that the 27 operational Galileo navigation satellites will occupy. Since its launch in December 2005, GIOVE-A has achieved all of its mission objectives and remains in excellent condition well beyond its design life of two years. The test... (read more)

2009-10-02 11:33:50