The Galileo satellites will eventually provide increased accuracy for outdoor enthusiasts. Image: OHB Systems
A British company has been chosen to build the navigation systems for the next set of Galileo satellites.
Galileo will eventually form a European satellite service to rival the USA’s Global Positioning System.
The European Space Agency signed a contract to produce the next eight satellites with a consortium including Guildford-based Surrey Satellite Technology and OHB Systems in Bremen, Germany.
The consortium already holds the contract for 14 satellites and the eight latest will eventually join the constellation orbiting Earth at a height of more than 23,000 km (14,300 miles).
The European Space Agency said: “Europe’s Galileo satellites combine the best atomic clocks ever flown in space for navigation – accurate to one second in three million years – with a powerful transmitter to broadcast precise navigation signals.”
The first two Galileo in-orbit validation satellites were successfully launched in October last year, and the agency plans to put another two IOV craft in orbit at the end of summer.
The 14 fully functioning satellites now being built by Surrey Satellite Technology and OHB and the eight just agreed will then progressively be launched to provide a full satellite navigation service for walkers, outdoor enthusiasts, motorists and numerous other users.
ESA has also agreed to commission beefed-up Ariane rockets to propel the satellites into their orbit. The first two IOV craft used Russian Soyuz rockets, one of the oldest space technologies still in use.
The satellite contract was signed this week at the European Commission’s London centre.
Galileo is planned to provide navigational accuracy of up two one metre and extend coverage into higher latitudes not covered by the GPS system and will also include a search and rescue function.
Margaret
03 February 2012The American Global Positioning System is called NAVSTAR, not GPS - in the same manner that the European Global Positioning System is called Galileo. It seems a shame that its name rarely gets a mention in the media.
Bob
03 February 2012The military satellite navigation system developed by the USA as the Defense Navigation Satellite System was called Navstar-GPS and soon became known more widely as simply GPS, a name now used almost universally to describe the American global satellite navigation system, including the US Department of Defense in, for example, its press releases: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65355
Margaret
03 February 2012Yes that has happened Bob, but if we want to be clear as to what system is being written about, really we need to use the various names or end up, for example, using terms such as 'the Russian GPS' rather than Glonass or 'the European GPS' instead of Galileo; a name which we do use, though I can't remember NAVSTAR being used much even during the 1990s. Margaret
Luke
03 February 2012GPS should only used to refer to the American system. When referring to all of the global systems (GLONASS, Galileo, and GPS), the more general acronym GNSS is used instead. See Hofmann-Wellenhof et al. (2008).
W Ross
03 February 2012Good to see the EU spending our money wisely (again). The Russians have a system and the Chinese are developing one. It's not about accuracy or safety, it's about status symbology.
I wonder if the new systems will be given to the world free of charge like the US system?