The ESNC is once again inviting entrepreneurs from research and industry to present value-added business applications for the emerging satellite navigation market. The current market for satellite services – such as for mobility, health, or safety – is already worth more than EUR 100 billion, and is expected to rise to EUR 240 billion by 2020. The ESNC supports participating innovators in realising their applications and business cases through an extensive partner network that covers the technical, economical, and legal aspects involved.

Septentrio has announced that they have obtained, based on live ICD compliant Galileo messages from the four Galileo IOV satellites, a fi rst autonomous realtime Galileo PVT calculation. The standalone position was calculated from in-orbit navigation messages using a standard PolaRx4 GNSS receiver equipped with commercially released fi rmware. www.septentrio.com.

Europe’s two satellite navigation systems could combine in future for heightened performance, an airborne test has confirmed. A helicopter flight took place above an Alpine valley, the one place on Earth where Galileo services are already routinely available. Results of last autumn’s flight test show that adding Galileo signals to the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service – EGNOS – that currently augments the accuracy and reliability of US GPS signals over Europe should boost its accuracy significantly.

Galileo’s search and rescue system passes fi rst space test
The first switch-on of a Galileo search and rescue package shows it to be working well. Its activation begins a major expansion of the space-based Cospas–Sarsat network, which brings help to air and sea vessels in distress. The second pair of Europe’s

Europe’s third Galileo satellite has transmitted its first test navigation signals back to earth. The two Galileo satellites launched last October have reached their final orbital position and are in the midst of testing.

At the site of the future main Galileo Security Monitoring Center (GSMC) in Saint Germain en Laye outside Paris, a ground-breaking ceremony was organised by the French Space Agency (CNES), with a large contingent of French civilian and military authorities and EU officials in attendance.

A Soyuz ST-B launcher carrying two Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites took off as scheduled at 18:15 GMT (20:15 CEST; 2:15 p.m. EDT) on October 12 from the European Spaceport in French Guiana. All the stages of the Soyuz vehicle performed as planned and the Fregat-MT upper stage released the Galileo satellites into their targeted orbit close to 23,200 kilometer altitude, three hours 45 minutes after liftoff.

The next Galileo navigation satellite has touched down at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, to begin preparations for its launch in October. These third and fourth Galileo ‘In-Orbit Validation’ (IOV) satellites are due to be launched aboard a Soyuz ST-B vehicle in October. These new satellites will join the first two Galileo satellites – launched last year – in medium-Earth orbit at 23 222 km.

European Commission vice president Antonio Tajanihas unveiled a new service intended to make satellite data more reliable. The European Data Access Service (EDAS) will make data from the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) available on the Internet. As a result, people will be able to access this GPS data from hand-held devices, Tajanisaid, improving the accuracy of things like high-precision fertiliser spraying, automatic road-tolling, fl eet management, inland waterway navigation, dangerous goods transportation or accurate area measurement.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has published a contract notice in the Offi cial Journal of the European Union inviting operators to bid for the provision of EGNOS services over the 2014-2021period. This contract will consist in operating, maintaining and upgrading the EGNOS system infrastructure, and ensuring the continuous and safe provision of the three services offered by EGNOS.
The new EGNOS service provision contract is planned to be awarded in 2013 and is aimed at guaranteeing the provision of EGNOS services for 8 years starting on the 1st of January 2014, without service interruption.