Galileo Initial Services have now been restored. Commercial users can already see signs of recovery of the Galileo navigation and timing services, although some fluctuations may be experienced until further notice, reports the GSA infosite.
The technical incident originated by an equipment malfunction in the Galileo control centers that calculate time and orbit predictions and that are used to compute the navigation message. The malfunction affected different elements on both centers.
A team composed of GSA experts, industry, ESA and Commission, worked together 24/7 to address the incident. The team is monitoring the quality of Galileo services to restore Galileo timing and navigation services at their nominal levels.
An Independent Inquiry Board will be established to identify the root causes of the major incident. This will allow the Commission, as the program manager, together with the EU Agency GSA to draw lessons for the management of an operational system with several millions of users worldwide.
Galileo has provided ‘initial services’ since December of 2016. During this initial ‘pilot’ phase preceding the ‘full operational services’ phase, Galileo signals are used in combination with other satellite navigation systems, which allows for the detection of technical issues before the system becomes fully operational. In the full operational phase, Galileo should function independently of other satellite navigation systems.
Dedicated Notice Advisory to Galileo Users (NAGUs) have been published at the European GNSS Service Centre to inform users on the service impact:
• NAGU number 2019025 on 2019-07-11 14:45 on the potential service degradation
• NAGU number 2019026 on 2019-07-13 20:15 on the service outage
• NAGU number 2019027 on 2019-07-18 08:20 on the service recovery.
