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Four Galileo satellites are to be launched on an Ariane 5 launcher from the Guyana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guyana at 18:36 UTC (19:36 CET) on December 12. For the first time, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) will be responsible for the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) of this mission (L9), overseeing Spaceopal GmbH in their new role as Galileo Service Operator.

The LEOP is one of the most important phases of a space mission as it launches the spacecraft, puts it into the correct orbit, and gradually switches on and tests the first satellite elements. For a quadruple Ariane 5 launch such as Galileo Launch 9, this phase will take about 14 days, beginning a few hours before the launch and ending when the satellites are in a safe and pre-defined configuration for the execution of final drift orbit manoeuvres.

The December 12 Galileo launch will be the second launch performed by an Ariane 5 and will bring the Galileo constellation to a total of 22 satellites launched so far: 4 in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites and 18 full operational capability (FOC) satellites. The LEOP falls within the remit of the GSA, following the handover to the Agency of responsibility for Galileo operations and service provision on July 1, 2017.

Tightly-knit team

The LEOP activities will be overseen by a tightly-knit team of specialists from the GSA, the mission director, and other experts from Spaceopal (a joint venture between DLR GfR mbH and Italy’s Telespazio S.p.A), and the operations director and specialists of the French Space Agency (CNES), supported by the Project Support Team. This team brings a wealth of experience in areas such as mission control, on board systems, flight dynamics, telecommunications and security. The LEOP team will operate according to pre-defined procedures and mission rules and follow the escalation criteria defined in the Galileo Chain of Command.

GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said that in working with Spaceopal on the Galileo L9 mission, the GSA is helping to ensure that Galileo’s signal in space is translated into tangible services for users. “This launch will be an impressive accomplishment for the team, but Galileo is about more than manufacturing and launching satellites. The ultimate aim is to ensure that European citizens benefit from the services made possible by satellite technology,” he said.

The LEOP operations are being conducted from a dedicated control room in the CNES Centre Spatial de Toulouse. An S-band link with the Galileo satellites is maintained by a network of TT&C stations distributed around the world. From this centre, the team will oversee all of the main LEOP stages.

Soon after the satellite separates from the launcher, an initialisation sequence is automatically triggered by the On-Board Data Handling software to bring the satellite to a stable ‘breathing point’. This is the point at which the satellite’s attitude is stable and pointing towards the sun, and solar arrays are deployed to provide full power. At this point the satellite is thermally stable, ensuring adequate temperature ranges for all units, and has a stable link to the ground.

The LEOP phase ends with the Command and Control Handover (C&C HO) of all 4 satellites from the LEOP Control Centre in Toulouse to the Galileo Control Centre (GCC-D) in Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany. The C&C HO follows a pre-defined and validated procedure with parallel operations from both centres and takes place while the satellite is in drift orbit in a selected pass, ensuring that both control centres will have adequate duration, visibility and access to the satellite to complete the hand-over. The hand-over takes place once the positioning manoeuvres have been completed and the final orbit has been determined, which will require approximately 2 measurement orbits after the last fine positioning manoeuvre.

Galileo Service Operator

The GSA awarded the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp) contract, with a value of up to EUR 1.5 billion, to Spaceopal at a special event in Brussels in December 2016, following a complex tendering process that started in January 2015.

The contract awarded to Spaceopal includes:

• Service provision of the Galileo Core System Operations, ILS and maintenance, including security monitoring from two mission control centres (GCC), located in Germany and Italy;
• GNSS Service Centre (GSC) operations and maintenance for user support services in Spain;
• Monitoring of system performance;
• Support to system deployment and evolutions including the LEOP & IOT services;
• Provision of Galileo Data Dissemination Network (GDDN) services;
• Hosting and maintenance of remote sites distributed worldwide.

For more information on the launch, click here.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Four Galileo satellites are to be launched on an Ariane 5 launcher from the Guyana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guyana at 18:36 UTC (19:36 CET) on December 12. For the first time, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) will be responsible for the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) of this mission (L9), overseeing Spaceopal GmbH in their new role as Galileo Service Operator.

The LEOP is one of the most important phases of a space mission as it launches the spacecraft, puts it into the correct orbit, and gradually switches on and tests the first satellite elements. For a quadruple Ariane 5 launch such as Galileo Launch 9, this phase will take about 14 days, beginning a few hours after the launch and ending when the satellites are in a safe and pre-defined configuration for the execution of final drift orbit manoeuvres.

The December 12 Galileo launch will be the second launch performed by an Ariane 5 and will bring the Galileo constellation to a total of 22 satellites launched so far: 4 in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites and 18 full operational capability (FOC) satellites. The LEOP falls within the remit of the GSA, following the handover to the Agency of responsibility for Galileo operations and service provision on July 1, 2017.

Tightly-knit team

The LEOP activities will be overseen by a tightly-knit team of specialists from the GSA, the mission director, and other experts from Spaceopal (a joint venture between DLR GfR mbH and Italy’s Telespazio S.p.A), and the operations director and specialists of the French Space Agency (CNES), supported by the Project Support Team. This team brings a wealth of experience in areas such as mission control, on board systems, flight dynamics, telecommunications and security. The LEOP team will operate according to pre-defined procedures and mission rules and follow the escalation criteria defined in the Galileo Chain of Command.

GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said that in working with Spaceopal on the Galileo L9 mission, the GSA is helping to ensure that Galileo’s signal in space is translated into tangible services for users. “This launch will be an impressive accomplishment for the team, but Galileo is about more than manufacturing and launching satellites. The ultimate aim is to ensure that European citizens benefit from the services made possible by satellite technology,” he said.

The LEOP operations are being conducted from a dedicated control room in the CNES Centre Spatial de Toulouse. An S-band link with the Galileo satellites is maintained by a network of TT&C stations distributed around the world. From this centre, the team will oversee all of the main LEOP stages.

Soon after the satellite separates from the launcher, an initialisation sequence is automatically triggered by the On-Board Data Handling software to bring the satellite to a stable ‘breathing point’. This is the point at which the satellite’s attitude is stable and pointing towards the sun, and solar arrays are deployed to provide full power. At this point the satellite is thermally stable, ensuring adequate temperature ranges for all units, and has a stable link to the ground.

The LEOP phase ends with the Command and Control Handover (C&C HO) of all 4 satellites from the LEOP Control Centre in Toulouse to the Galileo Control Centre (GCC-D) in Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany. The C&C HO follows a pre-defined and validated procedure with parallel operations from both centres and takes place while the satellite is in drift orbit in a selected pass, ensuring that both control centres will have adequate duration, visibility and access to the satellite to complete the hand-over. The hand-over takes place once the positioning manoeuvres have been completed and the final orbit has been determined, which will require approximately 2 measurement orbits after the last fine positioning manoeuvre.

Galileo Service Operator

The GSA awarded the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp) contract, with a value of up to EUR 1.5 billion, to Spaceopal at a special event in Brussels in December 2016, following a complex tendering process that started in January 2015.

The contract awarded to Spaceopal includes:

• Service provision of the Galileo Core System Operations, ILS and maintenance, including security monitoring from two mission control centres (GCC), located in Germany and Italy;
• GNSS Service Centre (GSC) operations and maintenance for user support services in Spain;
• Monitoring of system performance;
• Support to system deployment and evolutions including the LEOP & IOT services;
• Provision of Galileo Data Dissemination Network (GDDN) services;
• Hosting and maintenance of remote sites distributed worldwide.

For more information on the launch, click here.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Four Galileo satellites are to be launched on an Ariane 5 launcher from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guyana at 18:36 UTC (19:36 CET) on December 12. For the first time, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) will be responsible for the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) of this mission (L9), overseeing Spaceopal GmbH in their new role as Galileo Service Operator.

The LEOP is one of the most important phases of a space mission as it launches the spacecraft, puts it into the correct orbit, and gradually switches on and tests the first satellite elements. For a quadruple Ariane 5 launch such as Galileo Launch 9, this phase will take about 14 days, beginning a few hours before the launch and ending when the satellites are in a safe and pre-defined configuration for the execution of final drift orbit manoeuvres.

The December 12 Galileo launch will be the second launch performed by an Ariane 5 and will bring the Galileo constellation to a total of 22 satellites launched so far: 4 in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites and 18 full operational capability (FOC) satellites. The LEOP falls within the remit of the GSA, following the handover to the Agency of responsibility for Galileo operations and service provision on July 1, 2017.

Tightly-knit team

The LEOP activities will be overseen by a tightly-knit team of specialists from the GSA, the mission director, and other experts from Spaceopal (a joint venture between DLR GfR mbH and Italy’s Telespazio S.p.A), and the operations team of the French Space Agency (CNES). This team brings a wealth of experience in areas such as mission control, on board systems, flight dynamics and telecommunications. The LEOP team will operate according to pre-defined procedures and mission rules and follow the escalation criteria defined in the Galileo Chain of Command.

GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said that in working with Spaceopal on the Galileo L9 mission, the GSA is helping to ensure that Galileo’s signal in space is translated into tangible services for users. “This launch will be an impressive accomplishment for the team, but Galileo is about more than manufacturing and launching satellites. The ultimate aim is to ensure that European citizens benefit from the services made possible by satellite technology,” he said.

The LEOP operations are being conducted from a dedicated control room in the CNES Centre Spatial de Toulouse. An S-band link with the Galileo satellites is maintained by a network of TT&C stations distributed around the world. From this centre, the team will oversee all of the main LEOP stages.

Soon after the satellite separates from the launch vehicle, an initialisation sequence is carried out by the On-Board Data Handling software to bring the satellite to a stable ‘breathing point’. This is the point at which the satellite’s attitude is stable and pointing towards the sun, and solar arrays are deployed to provide full power. At this point the satellite is thermally stable, ensuring adequate temperature ranges for all units, and has a stable link to the ground.

The LEOP phase ends with the Command and Control Handover (C&C HO) of all 4 satellites from the LEOP Control Centre in Toulouse to the Galileo Control Centre (GCC-D) in Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany. The C&C HO follows a pre-defined and validated procedure with parallel operations from both centres and takes place while the spacecraft is in drift orbit in a selected pass, ensuring that both control centres will have adequate duration, visibility and access to the spacecraft to complete the hand-over. The hand-over takes place once the positioning manoeuvres have been completed and the final orbit has been determined, which will require approximately 2 measurement orbits after the last fine positioning manoeuvre.

Galileo Service Operator

The GSA awarded the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp) contract, with a value of up to EUR 1.5 billion, to Spaceopal at a special event in Brussels in December 2016, following a complex tendering process that started in January 2015.

The contract awarded to Spaceopal includes:

• Service provision of the Galileo Core System Operations, ILS and maintenance, including security monitoring from two mission control centres (GCC), located in Germany and Italy;
• GNSS Service Centre (GSC) operations and maintenance for user support services in Spain;
• Monitoring of system performance;
• Support to system deployment and evolutions including the LEOP & IOT services;
• Provision of Galileo Data Dissemination Network (GDDN) services;
• Hosting and maintenance of remote sites distributed worldwide.

For more information on the launch, click here.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Less than one year on from the launch of Galileo Initial Services (IS) in December 2016, the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) near Madrid was the venue for the very first Galileo User Assembly jointly organised by the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency (GSA). During this highly successful gathering of the Galileo community, the European GNSS User Consultation Platform (UCP) was officially launched to provide an open forum for users to discuss their needs, share experiences and provide feedback on the performance of European GNSS (EGNSS).

The First Galileo User Assembly was held on 28 and 29 November at the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC). Established within the secure site of Spain’s INTA (Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial) close to Madrid, the GSC welcomed more than 200 of Galileo users and stakeholders from all market segments and involved institutions.

In his opening speech Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the GSA, said the Assembly and the inauguration of the UCP marked a very special milestone for the Galileo programme: “The User Consultation Platform demonstrates the maturity of the programme,” he said before adding “Galileo is here and performing well.”

The UCP was introduced by Gian-Gherardo Calini, Head of Market Development at the GSA. “The UCP will have very high value and importance for all users and the Galileo community as a whole – creating concrete benefits for all,” he said. “Galileo and EGNOS must work in a user driven environment and interaction with users is imperative for the success of the programmes.”

The key concept of the UCP is to bring together as wide a range of users as possible in order to ensure that the community defines the strongest possible set of Position, Navigation, and Time (PNT) user requirements in their specific market segments. The UCP also allows users to share information on needs and market trends, and builds a strong and sustainable platform to exchange user perspectives.

More information and material available here.

Linking space to user needs

“This will ensure that the GSA is truly fulfilling its mission to link space to user needs,” Calini concluded.

Fiammetta Diani of the GSA introduced the main working sessions of the UCP. She described how the Galileo User Requirements documentation is intended to serve as a reference for E-GNSS developments, emphasising that these were “living, dynamic documents”.

The main work of the UCP took place through nine parallel workshop sessions grouping users by market segment. The transport sector was split into four segments: Rail, Road, Maritime and Aviation. Professional and High Precision users were divided in three sessions: Agriculture, Surveying and Timing. In addition, one large group was convened for Mass Market and consumer applications and a specific session discussed issues around Research and Development.

Each session was given a set of tasks to complete and nominated a chairperson or spokesperson to report back to a final plenary session.

The topics tackled by each group included discussing and validating the user requirements for their market area or thematic topic, providing inputs to enhance EGNSS services both in general and specifically in their area, providing feedback on GSC user support, and identifying specific R&D priorities by market segment.

User input

On the afternoon of 29 November, the nominated chairs reported back on the conclusions from the nine thematic sessions providing a substantial amount of ideas and input for the GSA team to work with.

Three panellists - Gian Gherardo Calini and Aitor Alvarez Rodriguez, GSC Coordinator, for GSA and María de las Flores Diaz Pulido for the European Commission commented on the presentations. At the end of the session each panellist was presented with a CD containing the User Requirements Documents.

All feedback will be considered and was recorded in comprehensive minutes of the meeting for all nine thematic sessions. The minutes will be distributed to the participants at the UCP along with the full set of presentations delivered at the event.

This information will feed a review of the EGNSS User Requirements Documents that will be shared widely during Q1 of 2018. At the 2018 UCP the GSA will report back on the implementation status of all the agreed actions.

Concluding the final session Justyna Redelkiewicz Musial from the GSA accurately commented that the atmosphere of the first UCP was that of a true family gathering. “This is just the start of the dialogue,” she said. “We can improve, and we look forward to the second UCP in 2018 with even more users and the wider community.”

This first UCP was clearly a success with all participants contributing in a truly collaborative and enthusiastic manner to ensure Galileo and other EGNSS can deliver substantial benefits and opportunities to society.

See you in 2018!

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).