Galileo Getting GIOVE-B Gains

The European Space Agency’s GIOVE-B satellite has successfully completed its test campaign and will depart from ESA-ESTEC, the agency’s European Research and Technology Centre, on March 11th. GIOVE-B is the second Galileo in-orbit validation satellite. The spacecraft will be flown to Baikonur, in Kazakhstan. From there, the satellite will be lofted into orbit by a Starsem Soyuz/Fregat launch vehicle. The launch is scheduled for 04:16:02 local time on April 27th. (00:16 CEST, 22:16 UTC [26 April]). GIOVE-B will test novel, key technologies for the Galileo system. They include the high-precision passive maser clock and the triple-channel transmission of navigation signals. Instruments onboard the satellite will measure the radiation and spacecraft charging environments. GIOVE-B will be able to transmit a signal adopting a specific standard (known as MBOC), in accordance with an agreement reached only a few months ago by the European Union and the United States for their respective systems. The spacecraft was built by a consortium lead by Astrium GmbH (Germany) as satellite prime, with Thales Alenia Space (Italy) as subcontractor for satellite assembly, integration and test. Telespazio (Italy) will be in charge of the operations in orbit. Following on from GIOVE-B, the first four satellites of the operational constellation are under development. They are scheduled for launch in 2010 and will enable a system-level verification of the Galileo design. Back in November of 2007, the European Union Transport Council reached the following conclusions on the future development of Galileo—the European Commission (EC) will be responsible for the overall management of the programs as the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Program Manager—ESA will act as procurement agent and prime contractor for Galileo—the full operational capacity (30 satellites and associated ground stations) is targeted by 2013—Galileo deployment and EGNOS operations are fully funded by the EU; 3.4 billion euros are to be allocated over the time period from 2007 to 2013. An agreement between the European Commission and ESA is being prepared which will address, in particular, the respective responsibilities and the detailed implementation of the Galileo deployment.