Space blog - Missions

Spanish disaster monitoring on track

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:02:50 +0000

DEIMOS

The Spanish Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) programme was started in August 2006 to provide an enhanced micro-satellite carrying a multi-spectral Earth observation payload under contract from the Spanish company, Deimos Imaging SL for use in commercial and environmental imaging applications. The project also includes a groundstation and data processing applications to be sited in northern Spain.

The design, manufacturing and integration of the spacecraft has been completed and is now into the environmental test phase, thermal vacuum and vibration testing has been successfully completed and SSTL are analysing the results.

The Groundstation and 5.5m Antenna have been integrated in the UK and are in the process of being packed and transported, for installation and commissioning in Spain.

The next major milestone is the Flight Readiness Review in July 2008, to be followed by a launch campaign preparing the spacecraft for a launch in Q4, 2008

Team TopSat earns RAeS award

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 16:55:46 +0000

Last week at the Royal Aeronautical Society awards ceremony , the team responsible for the successful TopSat Earth observation mission, was awarded the Society's Silver Medal.

"Team TopSat" collect RAeS award

TopSat was developed for the MOD and BNSC by QinetiQ, SSTL, RAL and Infoterra and has been collecting tactical 3m imagery of the Earth for more than two years, setting a new world record for "resolution per mass of satellite". The engineering model is now on display in the Science Museum.

The award was accepted on behalf of the TopSat team by Dr Stuart Eves, the godfather of the programme, and Jenny Harding, SSTL's Projects Director who managed the programme.

This is the fourth Royal Aeronautical Society award won by SSTL staff this year. The team responsible for GIOVE-A received the Team Silver Award as well as the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award, whilst Dr Mike Cutter was awarded the Society's Bronze Award for the design and manufacture of the CHRIS optical imaging system.

TopSat launched was launched in 2005. The small satellite's primary mission objective was to demonstrate that a microsatellite could deliver responsive high-resolution imagery directly from a satellite to ground terminals within the same footprint. Having fulfilled its original objectives, the satellite is now available for commercial service under the TopSat Consortium: QinetiQ (who own the satellite), SSTL, RAL and Infoterra, all original partners in the mission.

NigeriaSat (s) rocketing along

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:35:06 +0000

SSTL have successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for NigeriaSat-2. This review is of the finalised design of the NigeriaSat-2 spacecraft and ground segment and plans for the full satellite manufacture. The 300 kg satellite will provide Nigeria with valuable geographically referenced high-resolution satellite imaging for mapping, water resource management, agricultural land use, population estimation, health hazard monitoring and disaster mitigation and management. The higher resolution optical payload will enable Nigeria to join the second generation Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).

The SSTL-300 platform

This is an exciting period for the small satellite manufacturer, because NigeriaSat-2 will use the new, more agile SSTL-300 Earth Observation satellite platform.

Customer representatives from the National Space Research & Development Agency (NASRDA) have attended seven days of meetings at SSTL's headquarters in Guildford as part of the CDR.

Meanwhile during the third week in November, Nigeria's training satellite turned "real" satellite, codenamed NX has passed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with flying colours. The Nigerian Know How Transfer and Training (KHTT) team carried out the PDR for NX, which was was originally planned purely for training engineers as part of the NigeriaSat-2 programme. The PDR marks a significant milestone for the project and reflects the confidence of Nigeria's National Space Research And Development Agency (NASDRA) in the continued development of their engineers under the SSTL KHTT programme.

SSTL clock-up twin success in-orbit

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:00:34 +0000

Two high performance mircosatellites built by SSTL have entered their third year of in-orbit operations after delivering consistently outstanding results since their launch in October 2005.

Both satellites were designed and built by SSTL as Earth observation missions: Beijing-1 for China’s Beijing Landview Mapping Information Technology Ltd (BLMIT), and TopSat for British company QinetiQ on behalf of the UK Government.

TopSat

These two missions represented a significant development in capability and performance of small satellites, providing 2.5m resolution imagery onboard TopSat, and 4m for Beijing-1. The high performance cameras were designed and built in the UK by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and Sira Optronics respectively. Both satellites are built with highly agile attitude control systems that provide accurate pointing to enable several independent images to be targeted in rapid succession.

Beijing-1 was launched into the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), joining four other SSTL-built satellites for a multi-national consortium of owners. As well as contributing images to the DMC, the Chinese satellite is providing pollution and topography data to the Chinese government, much of which has been targeted at reducing pollutants in time for the 2008 Olympic Games to be hosted in the capital.

TopSat's primary mission objective was to demonstrate that a microsatellite could deliver responsive high-resolution imagery directly from a satellite to ground terminals within the same footprint. Having fulfilled its original objectives, the satellite is now available for commercial service under the TopSat Consortium: QinetiQ (who own the satellite), SSTL, RAL and Infoterra, all original partners in the mission.

Today, both satellites today share a common role in Low Earth Orbit, providing images for the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters, which is currently lead by SSTL’s subsidiary DMCii Ltd on behalf of the British National Space Centre (BNSC).

Just two years on, SSTL is developing the next generation DMC satellite for launch in 2009. The SSTL 300 platform will give users access to ever more demanding applications, including 10-metre PAN and 4-metre multi-spectral imaging and a throughput of more than 100 images per day.

Sira now forms SSTL’s Optical Payload Group, a 30-man team based at the company’s site in Sevenoaks UK, developing cutting-edge optics systems for space.

The DMC provide a unique Earth Observation resource that enables repeat daily imaging of anywhere in the world. Satellite owners contribute images, agreeing to provide 5% of their capacity free for daily imaging of disaster areas, whilst the majority of their capacity is available to support their independent imaging programs. This makes DMC membership particularly attractive to developing nations wishing to extend their reach without the prohibitive cost associated with larger satellites and “going it alone”.

DMCii Ltd coordinates the distribution and processing of the satellite image data.

Next generation DMC satellites for 2008 launch

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:39:02 +0100

SSTL is to launch two new enhanced Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satellites in the fourth quarter of 2008. Deimos-1, which was built for Deimos SL (Spain) and SSTL’s UK-DMC2 will be launched onboard a Dnepr rocket from the new Kosmotras launch site in southern Ural.

DEIMOS-1 will provide higher resolution imagery

Both Demios-1 and UK-DMC2 will carry an enhanced version of the DMC wide area imaging system, providing 600km wide swaths of the Earth in three spectral bands at a ground resolution of 22-metres. This is an advance on the current 32-metre DMC imager, which has been successfully providing imagery for over five years in the current constellation of five spacecraft. Additionally, the new spacecraft have over ten times the capacity for information provision. These significant enhancements reflect SSTL’s evolutionary approach to development that provides state of the art performance with minimal risk. The improved resolution and capacity enable the system to better meet European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program needs, particularly in the areas of forestry and fire.

UK-DMC2 has been funded and developed by SSTL to continue the success of DMC International Imaging (DMCii), which commercially exploits the data and help ensure continuity of the unique service provided by the constellation of DMC satellites for disaster relief and humanitarian aid.

The launch contract has been signed with ISC Kosmotras, with Commercial Space Technologies (CST) acting as the interface between SSTL and the launch agency.

Deimos Imaging (DMI) is part of the Deimos Space Group, and is based in the Boecillo Technology Park, Madrid. DMI is led by the Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque and aims at offering products based on satellite-captured information for use in Earth observation applications. One of the most notable aspects of DMI is the vertical integration of the production chain, which includes its own capture capability through the Deimos-1 satellite, as well as a remote sensing laboratory boasting a high R&D&I capacity.

Competition to curb Galileo costs and timescales

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:28:03 +0100

SSTL’s Group Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting stated in a press release today that he believes the increased competition resulting from the June proposal by the European Commission to fund the Galileo satellite navigation system through the public sector will reduce the cost and risk involved.

"The increased competition will have significant benefits"

”The increased competition will have significant benefits,” stated SSTL’s Group Executive Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting. “The public sector will soon be in a position to place contracts that give the European taxpayer better value for money and step up the pace of delivering the system”.

SSTL aims to support the European Commission and European Space Agency (ESA) by building on its experience gained through the successful GIOVE-A mission, to provide best value in the operational phase of Galileo. GIOVE-A was developed under a €28M contract signed with ESA in the second half of 2003. The mission’s primary aim was to broadcast Galileo signals from space so that Europe could claim the frequencies filed for Galileo with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The satellite was designed, built, tested and launched before the end of 2005 – on-time and on-budget. GIOVE-A has transmitted Galileo signals for over 18 months and remains the only Galileo spacecraft in operation. Following the success of GIOVE-A, ESA placed a further contract with SSTL in March 2007 for a second satellite named GIOVE-A2.

Sir Martin added:

“It’s clear that a second source of operational satellites is needed, both to provide healthy competition and to reduce risk to the schedule of the Galileo system. SSTL has begun discussions with other key European suppliers, with the aim of forming a team capable of supplying a significant portion of Galileo whilst maintaining the winning formula employed on GIOVE-A. We expect these discussions to be finalised in October, in time to provide the public sector with a much needed competitive option”.

Galileo is a joint initiative between ESA and the European Commission. When fully deployed in the early years of the next decade, it will be the first non-military positioning system to offer global coverage.

Nigerian ministerial visit

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 10:40:41 +0100

Nigeria's newly appointed Minister of Science, Chief Grace Ekpiwhre, began her new role with a visit to UK space company, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). The Honourable Minister was joined by Professor Robert Boroffice, Director-General, National Space Research and Development Agency, for briefing talks on a two-satellite contract currently under manufacture at SSTL for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nigerian ministerial visit

A new-design SSTL-300 enhanced microsatellite, to be called N2, will boost the country's space capability with a high performance operational mission delivering the latest in high resolution Earth imaging, to join the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) when launched in 2009. The imaging system will include a high-resolution 2.5-metre panchromatic camera with two further multispectral imagers: 5-metre 4-band (20km swath) and medium resolution 22-metre 4-band (300km swath).

Mrs Ekpiwhre also met with 11 Nigerian engineers currently working alongside SSTL engineers on the development of a training satellite. The SSTL-100 satellite, to be called NX, is an integral part of a know-how transfer programme that is providing the Nigerian engineers with hands-on experience in all aspects of spacecraft analysis, build, integration and test. NX will carry a 22-metre multispectral imaging system with ultra-wide 600km swath. The engineers will fully manage the complete life-cycle of the satellite, with responsibility for the delivery of the spacecraft to full flight specification.

The Minister visited both SSTL sites in Guildford, including the manufacturing clean rooms where she saw modules for the N2 spacecraft under construction.

This latest contract is the second between SSTL and Nigeria. NigeriaSat-1 was launched into the DMC in 2003 and continues to provide the country with 32-metre resolution imaging, used by the Government to monitor pollution, manage land use and monitor medium-scale changes to the landscape. N2 will enhance that capability significantly, providing Nigeria with hundreds of valuable geographically referenced images each day, for applications in mapping, water resource management, agricultural land use, population estimation, health hazard monitoring and disaster mitigation and management.

3 aerospace awards for SSTL

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:45:00 +0100

SSTL achievements have been recognised in by three prestigious awards from the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). The RAeS awards are considered the most prestigious and long-standing awards in global aerospace honouring achievement, innovation and excellence

The team responsible for the building and delivery of the Galileo test satellite, GIOVE-A, received the Team Silver Award. This was accompanied by the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award for an exceptional contribution to space, demonstrating first class risk and project management skills in designing and placing into orbit a complex, yet cost-effective satellite. Dr Mike Cutter was presented with the Society's Bronze Award for work of merit in the design, manufacture and exploitation in space of the CHRIS hyper-spectral camera.

SSTL was awarded the GIOVE-A contract in the summer of 2003 with a strict schedule to launch the satellite before the end of 2005. As the largest and most complex satellite SSTL had ever developed, the GIOVE-A project brought together a large multi-disciplinary team of up to 70 people to support development.

GIOVE-A team receive award

A core team of 10-20 people was responsible for the majority of the project co-ordination, system and payload engineering to deliver GIOVE-A to schedule. This core team was also essential to subsequent key phases of the mission such as the launch, commissioning and in-orbit test campaigns. Their understanding of GIOVE-A ensured that these critical activities were performed safely and efficiently, leading to the successful achievement of the main mission objectives.

Dr Mike Cutter receives award

CHRIS is the highest resolution hyper-spectral camera ever to be flown in space, made possible by BNSC funding. The design is particularly light in weight (14kg) and thrifty in its use of electrical power (8W), enabling it to be flown on a small satellite platform. CHRIS has been operational in space since the launch of PROBA in October 2001 and is in constant demand by more than 80 scientific groups across Europe and North America, Australia and China who use the flexible hyper-spectral modes of the instrument to analyse how various objects, materials and scenes can be analysed from orbit. Such research underpins important advances in remote sensing for environmental, farming, land use planning, water management and many other applications.

It is not the first time that the achievements of SSTL staff have been recognised by the RAeS. In 1998 Dr Marc Fouquet was presented with the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award for a significant contribution to space as the principle designer of imaging systems for Earth observation and star tracking.

The Royal Aeronautical Society has been honouring outstanding achievers in the global aerospace industry since 1908, when Wilbur and Orville Wright came to London to receive the Society’s first two Gold Medals. In the years that have followed, honouring world aerospace achievers has become a permanent tradition of the Society. The Society’s Awards Programme rewards individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to aerospace, whether for a single outstanding contribution or achievement, a major technical innovation, for exceptional leadership, long and valued service, or for work that will further advance aerospace.

Aliens at mission control Guildford

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:09:10 +0100

Can you spot the Alien? Image courtesy of TopSat Consortium

As part of Open University's "James May's 20th Century" television program, the Top Gear presenter visited Mission Control in Guildford. In the program James took a journey through the 20th century by "trying out for himself some of the most surprising and influential technological advances of the past hundred years".

James asked SSTL if he could 'borrow' a satellite to take a photograph of the Earth. Well, an area the size of a tennis court to be precise. A BBC production team, with the help of SSTL staff, spread white sheets on land adjacent to the small satellite manufacturer's headquarters in Guildford, carefully designed to represent a "Space Invader" alien when viewed from above. SSTL's operations team then programmed a series of images which did indeed capture the alien.

The satellite tasked for the image was TopSat. Weighing just 90kg, TopSat was designed and built by SSTL for UK-customer, QinetiQ. The 2.5m imaging system was designed and built by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The satellite, which was launched in October 2005, orbits 700km above the Earth and was designed as a technology demonstrator Earth observation mission for the UK Ministry of Defence.

French press reports ESA small satellite views

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:49:29 +0100

SSTL has got a good mention in the French press this week, related to changing the economics of space.

Small satellites such as GIOVE-A, the first satellite of the ambitious Galileo project can be built to affordable budgets by SSTL to short and clearly defines timescales.

Paraphrasing (corrections welcome):

ESA has made a decision to source equipment from small suppliers as their experience with SSTL has proved this can be done more efficiently and at a lesser cost.

And for our French visitors here's an abstract:

L'Agence spatiale européenne mise sur les petits industriels pour faciliter ses projets innovants. Les gros industriels du secteur comme EADS ou Alcatel ont du souci à se faire. Plusieurs exemples récents ont convaincu l'agence que de nouveaux entrants comme le suédois SSC, l'allemand OHB, le belge Verhaert, le britannique Qinetiq ou l'espagnol Casa sont capables de fournir des satellites ou des équipements avec bien plus de réactivité et pour des coûts jusqu'à 2 fois moins chers. L'ESA a déjà appliqué cette stratégie pour les démonstrateurs du programme Galileo en choisissant la « jeune pousse » de l'université du Surrey, la Surrey Satellite Technology Limited.

NigeriaSat-2 PDR gets thumbs up

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:52:45 +0100

SSTL have successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for NigeriaSat-2. The 300kg satellite will provide Nigeria with valuable geographically referenced high-resolution satellite imaging for applications in mapping, water resources management, agricultural land use, population estimation, health hazard monitoring and disaster mitigation and management, and will enable Nigeria to join the second generation Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC).

The PDR marks a significant milestone for the project and reflects the confidence of Nigeria's National Space Research And Development Agency (NASDRA) that the design proposed by SSTL will achieve their mission objectives.

Click to enlarge

The next step for NigeriaSat-2 is the Critical Design Review (or CDR). In the interim, SSTL will finalise the design of the NigeriaSat-2 spacecraft and ground segment and plans for the full satellite manufacture will be implemented. This is an exciting period for the small satellite manufacturer, because NigeriaSat-2 will use a new, more agile satellite platform (pictured left).

The PDR included the kick-off for the NX spacecraft, which the Nigerian engineers being trained at SSTL and the University Of Surrey will build alongside NigeriaSat-2 under the supervision of SSTL engineers as part of their Know-How Transfer and Training (KHTT) scheme. The Nigerian engineers presented the work undertaken during their training at SSTL and are preparing for the next stage, Mission Design Review, which will take place in August.

Customer representatives from the National Space Research & Development Agency (NASRDA), along with their technical advisors, Telesat of Canada, attended seven days of meetings at SSTL's headquarters in Guildford as part of the PDR.

NigeriaSat-2 is scheduled for launch in 2009.

SSTL welcomes a fresh start for Galileo

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:54:20 +0100

SSTL welcomes the agreement reached at the European Transport Council on today (8th June) on how to move ahead with the Galileo satellite navigation system. The deployment of the system will now be funded by the public sector. "Ministers decided to abandon the public-private partnership and start again from scratch," said European Commission transport spokesman Michele Cercone.

The agreement calls for more competition to be introduced so that the system can be procured quickly for rapid deployment of Galileo by 2012. This means that more innovative and efficient approaches can be adopted and that a wider range of European small and medium sized companies can contribute to the success of Galileo. This will also bring tangible benefits to the governments and the tax-payers investing in the Galileo system, and ultimately to the end user.

First satellite GIOVE-A

The agreement also calls for the procurement strategy to “reflect progress made so far”. Under a €28M contract signed in the second half of 2003, SSTL has already supplied the European Space Agency (ESA) with the very first Galileo satellite, GIOVE-A. GIOVE-A’s primary mission was to broadcast Galileo signals from space so that Europe could claim the frequencies filed for Galileo with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Under the rapidly-paced ESA contract, the satellite was designed, built, tested and launched before the end of 2005 – on-time and on-budget.

Following the signing of the resolution, Group Executive Chairman of SSTL, Sir Martin Sweeting, said:

“Through the GIOVE-A projects SSTL has already shown how small and medium sized companies can play a very significant role in Galileo. Over the coming weeks SSTL will be exploring ways of bringing a much-needed fresh approach to the implementation of Galileo”.

In January 2006, the first Galileo signals were transmitted from the satellite and in March 2006 ESA was able to confirm that it had brought the Galileo-related frequency filings into use, three months ahead of the official deadline. In 2007 GIOVE-A started to broadcast real navigation messages, containing the information needed by user receivers to calculate their position allowing research centres and receiver manufacturers to extend testing of their Galileo receiving equipment.

A recent announcement by ESA stated that “in the near future GIOVE-A will begin to continuously broadcast the navigation message, with the message content being updated whenever the satellite is visible from the Guildford uplink station. The message content will also be extended to include the time offset between GPS and the experimental Galileo system. Knowing this offset will allow the user to build a position fix using GPS satellites and GIOVE-A.” This will also help the research centres and equipment manufacturers to work towards their ultimate goal of user equipment able to work simultaneously with both GPS and Galileo.

Following on from the success of GIOVE-A, in March 2007 ESA placed a contract with SSTL for a second satellite named GIOVE-A2. This additional satellite will help maintain the critical ITU frequency filing secured by its predecessor for a further 27 months, will facilitate further development of ground equipment and may demonstrate additional features of the Galileo System.

Galileo is a joint initiative between ESA and the European Commission. When fully deployed in the early years of the next decade, it will be the first non-military positioning system to offer global coverage. For a light tecnhical discussion of Galileo and the role of GIOVE-A why not listen to the GIOVE-A Podcast (recorded before launch in Decemeber 2005).

GPS receivers to be supplied for USAF satellites

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 16:34:33 +0100

SSTL have been selected by the US Air Force Research Laboratory to supply two GPS receivers for the TACSAT-3 mission. The receivers will be delivered to the customer in August for integration with the spacecraft which is schedule to be launched end 2007 / early 2008.

SSTL has also been seelected to supply a GPS receiver for the US Air force Academy's FalconSat-5 mission. The receiver will be delivered to the USAF during the second quarter 2008.

S-band Patch Antenna completed for TanDem-X

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:24:41 +0100

SSTL has built an S-band patch antenna for Astrium's TanDEM-X mission. The attenna will be delivered to Astrium at the end of May having successfully completed testing. SSTL delivered a similar patch antenna to Astrium for their TerraSAR mission, to be launched later this year.

The SSTL patch antenna is a rugged, compact, moderate gain low cost antenna solution for space applications. It is capable of supporting high data rates and RF power, tested in a numerous mission heritage.

GIOVE-A transmits first navigation message

nospam@example.com (Robin Wolstenholme) — Tue, 08 May 2007 11:18:23 +0100

Earlier this week, the SSTL built GIOVE-A satellite successfully transmitted its first navigation message, containing the information needed by user receivers to calculate their position. Prior to reaching this milestone, the satellite had been broadcasting only the data needed for measuring the receiver-to-satellite distance.

GIOVE-A in vacuum chamber, ESTEC

The first Galileo navigation message was created by the navigation signal generator unit on board GIOVE-A, using content prepared by the GIOVE Mission Segment. This week-one navigation message was uplinked to GIOVE-A on 2 May from the Guildford ground station operated by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (United Kingdom) and then transmitted from the spacecraft to the users. The objective of the test was to demonstrate an end-to-end link between the Mission Segment and the user receivers. The navigation message is being generated for demonstration purposes only – no service guarantee is provided.

The complete radio transmission from GIOVE-A carries a navigation signal and a navigation message. The navigation signal contains the information needed to accurately measure the distance from the satellite to the user receiver. The navigation message provides the timing and spacecraft orbit data needed to calculate the time and exact position of the satellite. One of the main tasks of the GIOVE Mission Segment is the generation of this navigation message.

GIOVE Mission Segment

The GIOVE Mission Segment comprises two main elements, a world-wide network of 13 Galileo experimental sensor stations and the GIOVE Processing Centre (GPC) located at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

Note: The GPC is operated by European Satellite Navigation Industries (ESNIS) – the new name for Galileo Industries.

SSTL's GIOVE-A team at ESTEC

In order to generate the navigation message, the sensor stations track the signal-in-space from GIOVE-A and send the tracking information to the processing centre. The GPC computes, among other things, the precise satellite flight path and on-board clock model. It then generates a prediction of the orbital path and clock performance for the near-term future, which is the basis of the navigation message. Next, this message is transmitted to GIOVE-A which retransmits it to the user.

Aside from navigation message generation, the primary tasks of the GIOVE Mission Segment are performance characterisation of the on-board clocks, orbit modelling, and operations planning & telemetry analysis for the navigation payload.

Another validation step completed

On 12 January 2006, GIOVE A transmitted the first Galileo signals, thereby securing the frequencies allocated to Galileo by the International Telecommunication Union. Now, the transmissions are carrying a navigation message – this means that the satellite is providing information that is needed by a receiver to calculate its position.

Although the navigation message structure of GIOVE-A is slightly different, the GIOVE-A navigation transmissions are fully representative of those that will be sent by the operational Galileo system. The operating principles are identical and the achievement of the first navigation message is another important step in the validation of the Galileo system design.

GPS interoperability

Following this successful test, in the near future GIOVE-A will begin to continuously broadcast the navigation message, with the message content being updated whenever the satellite is visible from the Guildford uplink station. Additionally, the message content will be extended to include the time offset between GPS and the experimental Galileo system. Knowing this offset, the Experimental Galileo-GPS Time Offset (E-GGTO), will allow the user to build a position fix using GPS satellites and GIOVE-A.

Galileo is a joint initiative between ESA and the European Commission. When fully deployed in the early years of the next decade, it will be the first civilian positioning system to offer global coverage.

ESA press release: GIOVE-A transmits first navigation message

What next?

SSTL were awarded a second contract on March 5th 2007 for initial activities leading to the construction of a second spacecraft for the Galileo satellite navigation system. Named GIOVE-A2, the new satellite (estimated total value 25 to 30 million Euros) will be based on the company’s proven GIOVE-A technology. From now on, there will always be a European navigation satellite in space.

ESA press release: GIOVE-A2 to secure the Galileo programme