Program: Galileo

Also called GNSS-2 or Galileosat

European navigation program initially to be operational in 2008 (now 2016?). With the financial participation of China ($248 million), India ($200 million?), Israel, South Korea (EUR 5 million) and Ukraine. Discussions are also underway with Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco and Norway.

Composed of 30 (now only 22) satellites in MEO (24000 km, 3 planes, 55°) including 3 spares. No GEO satellite. The Galileo satellites should weigh 700 kg, use 1500 W power and a nominal duration of 13 years. It should contain 4 atomic clocks and a search and rescue system ( Sarsat) and take part on the Meosar (Medium Earth Orbit Search And Rescue). Should transmit 10 signals in the L-band (5 services), two of them will be ciphered for government use.

The system will be able to integrate with GPS so that the US system users beneficiate from it. The MBOC (multiplexed binary offset carrier) will enable compatible receivers to use both signals and bring precision to 3.5 m (from GPS 3A series).

The system should cost at least EUR 3.6 billion. The private sector would finance EUR 1.5 billion. The system should cost EUR 220 million a year to operate. The EU will pay EUR 200 million in 2008 and then reduce that amount by EUR 50 million each year until it reaches 0 in 2012.

In Sep 2004, two consortia are bidding to operate the program: Eurely (Alcatel, Finmeccanica, Vinci, SFR and Capgemini) and iNavSat (EADS, Thales, Inmarsat and SES Global). Decision has been delayed and a merger of the offers requested.

In Jun 2005, the joint bid was approved. The evaluation of this joint proposal, compared to both individual offers showed a significant reduction in the financial contribution from the public sector.

In Dec 2005, the location of the facilities was agreed. The Headquarters of the Galileo Concessionaire will be located in Toulouse, France. The Operations Company will be located in London, United Kingdom. The two Control Centres (Constellation and Mission) will be located in Germany and Italy as well as the two Performance Evaluation Centres supporting the concessionaire headquarters. Spain will host facilities that include redundancy for the Control Centres.

In Jan 2006 the contract for the test phase was signed, worth EUR 1 billion. It covers the development and construction of the first four Galileo constellation satellites and part of the ground infrastructure for Galileo, including the full testing of the subsystem.

In May 2007, the program is freezed. Either it will be relaunched with public funds only (2.4 billion EUR to be found and contracts will be scrapped) or canceled. Decision no earlier than Oct 2007.

In Aug 2007, EADS, Thales and Finmeccanica appoint themselves prime contractor (EADS in charge of the satellites, Thales and Finmeccanica in charge of the ground infrastructure). That was cancelled by the Nov 2007 deal.

In Nov 2007, a compromise was found for the use of EU funds to finance the full program (EUR 3.4 billion). The program would be relaunched with lighter objectives and with competition. The deal is split in 6 main parts and the tasks are to be distributed evenly among prime contractors and subcontractors. A new tender will be launched, with 6 lots (satellites, launchers, computer programmes, ground stations, control stations and the system's operation).

In Jul 2008, Inmarsat was been awarded a contract by DLR, the German Aerospace Center, to provide Payload In-Orbit Test (IOT) services for the four satellites forming the Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase.

In Oct 2009, the EC decided to order only 22 Galileo satellites instead of the 28 to 30.

In Jan 2010, OHB Technology with SSTL won a contract to build 14 satellites for EUR 566 million, to be launched by Ariane (2 satellites per Soyuz launch) from 2012. The payloads were ordered from SSTL in Apr 2010 for EUR 230 million.

In Jun 2010, a cost overrun of EUR 1.5 billion is rumored, and more funds are to be found.

In early 2012, 8 additional satellites were ordered from OHB (worth EUR 250 million)

The in-orbit validation was successfully achieved in early 2014. Service officially started in Dec 2016.

The first satellites are suffering from clock failing: each satellite has 4 clocks; among the first 72 clocks launched in Jan 2017/ 10 has failed. The clocks are built by Spectratime, Switzerland. The issue was found in a component of the rubidium clocks, that will be replaced on future satellites. The hydrogen maser clocks need improvment too.

The FOC satellites are owned by European Union's GSA (Global navigation satellite Systems Agency)

In July 2019, a 6-day outage occured. The issue was caused by an equipment malfunction in both the Galileo control centres.

Status: not officially operational, only 26 launched out of 30 satellites needed

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EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service)

Before Galileo became operational, the EGNOS payload was included in Artemis and 2 Inmarsats. It sends signals that will be used to enhance GPS measurements absed on the GPS L1 frequency.

Egnos will provide GEO Ranging (R-GEO) with 3 additional satellites, GNSS Integrity Channel (GIC) and Wide-Area Differential (WAD) to broadcast differential corrections. Egnos started operational service on 16 Jun 2005 and become approved for aircraft landing in March 2011.

In Mar 2009, the European Commission contracted with SES to carry an EGNOS payload on Astra 4B.

In Oct 2009, EGNOS became officially operational. The EC decided to order only 22 Galileo satellites instead of the 28 to 30.

In 2014 2 payloads were added: Amazonas 4A + Astra 5B. Then in 2019 on Eutelsat 5 West B

Another payload is to be hosted by Eutelsat (named EGNOS GEO-4)

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Galileo Second Generation

First launch initially planned in 2024. The procurement process calls for 2 selectees that will each provide 2 satellites, with options for up-to 12.

In Jan 2021 two contracts were awarded for 6 satellites each to Thales Alenia Space (italy) and Airbus Defence and Space (Germany) for a total of EUR1.47 billion. First satellite should be launched in 2024. Leonardo's hydrogen clock was selected again and 12 modules were ordered.

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Planes and slots

	Plane A	Plane B	Plane C
Slot 1	Galileosat 22 Galileo FOC FM18	Galileosat 24 Galileo FOC FM20	Galileo FOC FM14
Slot 2	Galileo FOC FM10	Galileosat 25 Galileo FOC FM21	Galileo FOC FM09
Slot 3	Galileosat 19 Galileo FOC FM15	Galileosat 27 Galileo FOC FM23 Galileo FOC FM04	Galileo FOC FM13
Slot 4	Galileosat 21 Galileo FOC FM17	Galileosat 23 Galileo FOC FM19	Galileo IOV FM3
Slot 5	Galileo FOC FM05	Galileo IOV PFM
Slot 6	Galileo FOC FM11	Galileo IOV FM2	Galileo FOC FM07
Slot 7	Galileosat 20 Galileo FOC FM16	Galileosat 26 Galileo FOC FM22	Galileo FOC FM08
Slot 8	Galileo FOC FM06	Galileo FOC FM03	Galileo FOC FM12
Slot 14		Galileosat 8 Galileo FOC FM04sat_galileo_foc_fm04	Galileo IOV FM4
Slot 15		Galileosat 28 Galileo FOC FM24sat_galileo_foc_fm24

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External resources

http://www.gsa.europa.eu/

http://www.galileo-pgm.org/
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/satnav/galileo/index_en.htm
http://www.esa.int/esaNA/galileo.html
http://www.egnos-pro.esa.int/
Lookup sat-index archive

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