05/02/2025
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In a landmark achievement, ESA efficiently migrated Galileo’s Management Centres in a extremely advanced operation involving over 200 folks from the Company, business and EUSPA. This milestone marked the start of a worldwide operation to improve Galileo’s complete Floor Phase, an enormous community of stations unfold around the globe.
Galileo’s Floor Phase is on the coronary heart of the system: it retains satellites on time, pinpoints their place and doable drift, processes information and displays the reliability of the constellation, in the end enabling Galileo’s glorious efficiency. Every station on this intensive community is now set to endure an improve integrating new {hardware} and software program to make sure system sustainability, improve robustness and reinforce cybersecurity. This operation is important for the roll-out of the Public Regulated Service (PRS) that may present extremely correct and sturdy encrypted alerts for authorised governmental customers.
ESA, as system improvement prime and design authority, has led this effort and along with 5 European corporations (Thales Alenia House, GMV, Telespazio Belgium, Thales SIX and Indra) efficiently upgraded three key websites that characterize completely different station typologies: Redu, Belgium; Réunion, French abroad division within the Indian Ocean; and Jan Mayen, Norway.
These preliminary upgrades served as demonstration prototypes, paving the way in which for the EU Company for the House Programme (EUSPA), the Galileo service supplier, to coordinate the improve of the 11 remaining websites along with the identical industrial companions. Migration actions will proceed for many of 2025.
The upgrades offered vital logistical and technical challenges, from coordinating a number of contractors to navigating the logistical hurdles of remoted places. These operations concerned quickly halting website operations whereas sustaining Galileo’s efficiency and guaranteeing no disruption to end-user companies, a key achievement due to meticulous planning, synchronisation between entities and distinctive assist from the Galileo Management and Safety Monitoring Centres.
Redu, the pioneer website
The Redu station in Belgium situated at ESA ESEC premises hosts a Galileo sensor station; a telemetry, monitoring and command station and an in-orbit take a look at centre. The sensor station was the primary to endure migration after the Management Centres have been upgraded, providing an easy take a look at case as a result of nature of the station and the beneficial logistics.
The migration was achieved by a small crew inside only a few days, offering precious apply forward of the extra advanced migration at Réunion.
Réunion, the intricate website
Following the profitable migration at Redu, the crew tackled a considerably extra advanced improve on the island of Réunion. This website combines a sensor station; a telemetry, monitoring and command station, in addition to an uplink station, including to the problem. Reunion was additionally the pioneer location for the primary deployment of the cyber safety monitoring ingredient that enhances the system’s functionality to establish and defend in opposition to cyberattacks.
A crew of 12 folks from ESA and concerned business was deployed in shifts for six weeks. The specialists accomplished the migration, efficiently overcoming the complexities of the positioning.
Jan Mayen, the remoted website
The third website migrated below ESA’s oversight was the one on Jan Mayen, a Norwegian island 500 km off the coast of Greenland. This migration was not the toughest technically, as the positioning solely hosts a sensor station, however was logistically difficult given its distant location within the Arctic. For instance, the airplane carrying the crew and gear was not in a position to land on the primary day attributable to poor visibility and robust winds, forcing it to return to Oslo and try and land once more on the next day.
These actions mark the primary main migration of Galileo’s Floor Phase distant websites since they started offering companies a decade in the past, and units the stage for Galileo’s continued evolution and excellence. The following main systemwide improve will possible coincide with the transition to Galileo Second Technology (G2) within the coming years.
About Galileo
Galileo is at present the world’s most exact satellite tv for pc navigation system, serving over 4 billion smartphone customers across the globe since getting into Open Service in 2017. All smartphones bought within the European Single Market are actually assured Galileo-enabled. As well as, Galileo is making a distinction throughout the fields of rail, maritime, agriculture, monetary timing companies and rescue operations.
A flagship programme of the EU, Galileo is managed and funded by the European Fee. Since its inception, ESA, as system improvement prime and design authority, leads the design, improvement and qualification of the house and floor programs, and procures launch companies. ESA can be entrusted with analysis and improvement actions for the way forward for Galileo throughout the EU programme Horizon Europe. The EU Company for the House Programme (EUSPA) acts because the system prime for the operational system supplier, guaranteeing exploitation and secure and safe supply of companies whereas overseeing market calls for and software wants.
