Thales Alenia Space to provide Galileo’s Mission Segment
June 22, 2011
Thales Alenia Space announced today the signature of a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), acting on behalf of the European Commission, for the development and deployment of the ground-based Galileo Mission Segment (GMS) and the Galileo Security Facility (GSF). This contract, amounting 281 Million Euros will cover almost four years of activity including maintenance.
The Galileo Mission Segment (GMS) is the heart of the Galileo satellite navigation system. It comprises a global network of sensor stations to monitor the signals from the satellites, a chain of Earth stations to uplink navigation data to the satellites, parallel communications networks, and a complex sequence of processing elements. Collectively, these will provide navigation services which are accurate, reliable and trustworthy.
The GSF will be responsible for managing user access to Galileo’s encrypted Public Regulated Service (PRS).
Based on 16 Galileo Sensor Stations (GSS), 5 Up-Link Stations (ULS) widespread all over the globe and the two Galileo Control Centers (GCC) in Fucino, Italy, and Oberpfaffenhoffen, Germany, the GMS and GSF will be fully operational in 2014 in order to support the first phase of the Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC). They will enable the delivery of the first Galileo services - Open Service, Search & Rescue Service and PRS - to the user community with an adequate level of availability.
This contract confirms Thales Alenia Space lead position in the Navigation domain: the activities will be launched in parallel and in synergy with the completion of the Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase, ensuring a smooth transition. The industrial team inherited from 5 years of working experience on IOV has been strengthened: it relies, among others, on the European footprint of Thales Alenia Space : the overall management will be handled in France by the Toulouse facility, while the Italian sites (Rome and Milano) will be in charge of the non PRS receivers and the Precise Time Facilities (PTF) and the German site in Pforzheim will be responsible for all the assembly, integration and validation.
“This marks a new milestone in our long standing support to Europe’s Galileo system”, said Luigi Pasquali, Senior Executive Vice President of Thales Alenia Space in charge of Observation, Science, Navigation and Infrastructure. “Thales Alenia Space has been involved in the Galileo program since its inception and along the years we have proven to be a key partner to ESA and the European Commission to turn their global navigation satellite projects into reality.”
As prime contractor for the precursor European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) program, Thales Alenia Space has provided the level of accuracy and integrity required to open “safety of life” services now in use on several European airports, including Paris Le Bourget. As prime for the Galileo SETA contract, Thales Alenia Space provides valuable system activities to ESA regarding system design, system performance, system integration and validation, , system security and accreditation, product assurance. Thales Alenia Space is also involved in the development of the Galileo Space Segment as supplier for key equipments and is responsible for the assembly, integration and test (AIT) of the 4 IOV satellites at the Italian facility in Rome.
Thales Alenia Space will continue supporting Galileo and especially the completion of the overall satellite constellation in the near future.
