Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Ivan Revnivykh’s life and experience encompass the far frontiers of his homeland, Russia, from the magnificent landscapes of the country’s Pacific coast to research stations in Antarctica, to the great capital city of Moscow where he lives and works today. To everything he does he brings a sense of excitement and adventure.
By Peter Gutierrez
At the lavish European Satellite Navigation Competition Awards Ceremony, we caught up with Carlo des Dorides, general director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), who updated us on the status of the much-anticipated Galileo Commercial Service (CS).
“On the CS, we are dialoging extensively with EU member states, because there is a more and more consolidated view that there could be an advantage to providing the service for free,” des Dorides said.
By Peter Gutierrez
A government report commissioned by Innovate UK, along with the UK Space Agency and the Royal Institute of Navigation, entitled “Economic impact to the UK of a disruption to GNSS”, comes in the wake of troubling incidents for GNSS operators, both the United States and Europe.
Last year a problem with the GPS satellite timing signal triggered alarms and caused an unknown number of outages, and in Europe earlier this year the fledgling Galileo signal crashed due to unspecified ground facility issues.
By Peter Gutierrez
No longer consigned to predicting what might one day happen, the folks at the Galileo program can now look at and talk about what is happening right now, starting with initial services. To help us understand what’s going on, we enlisted no less than Matthias Petschke, Galileo Program Director at the European Commission (EC).
By Peter Gutierrez
Speakers at the 9th Annual Conference on European Space Policy wasted no time in addressing the somewhat worrying failure of several Galileo onboard clocks, as revealed by European Space Agency Director General Johan-Dietrich Woerner at a press briefing earlier in January in Paris. He made clear at the time that the clock failures, while indeed troubling, had had no effect on the operational integrity of the Galileo system.
By Peter Gutierrez
Carlo des Dorides, GSA Executive DirectorLast October, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) Administrative Board reelected Carlo des Dorides as executive director of the GSA, giving him a second — and final — four-year term in charge of this key agency responsible for supporting the effective operation, maintenance, and security of Europe’s satellite navigation systems. We met with him recently at the GSA office in Prague to learn how he plans to see out his mandate.
By Peter Gutierrez
Europe’s space community rang in the New Year with two of its brightest annual fixtures: the European Union (EU) Space Policy conference in Brussels and the European Space Agency (ESA) media briefing in Paris.
The events brought out all of the relevant voices and served to illustrate not only the disposition of materiel and troops but also their intent and even the level of morale.
By Peter Gutierrez
Speakers at the low-in-profile but high-in-content International Association of Institutes of Navigation (IAIN) conference in Prague this year threw into stark relief some of the big GNSS programs and even bigger GNSS questions.
By Peter Gutierrez
At the European Economic and Social Committee’s Space & Society Conference, from left, Daniel Calleja Crespo, director general of European Commission’s DG Growth; EESC Space and Society Project Coordinator Edgardo Maria Iozia, and Giulio Bartolani di Montauto, European Space Agency’s Brussels office.Reporting from Brussels last year, we explained that the then–brand new EU GNSS Regulation had effectively put to bed years of wrangling over who does what in Europe’s GNSS programs. But the issue reared its head again in Brussels recently, in a highly charged discussion hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
By Peter Gutierrez
Carlo des Dorides, El?bieta Bie?kowskaLast January, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) announced a new invitation to tender for the role of Galileo service operator (GSOp). Speaking at the recent EU Space Policy Conference in Brussels, GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides called it the largest contract ever to be awarded under the Galileo program.
“It will shape the future of Galileo,” he said.
By Peter Gutierrez
Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis has turned much of public opinion in the West against that country, in particular souring the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Russia. And, while the ceasefire signed in September technically is still in force, the EU-Russia rift is far from smoothed over.
By Peter Gutierrez
Europe has been talking up its European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS, for short) — and why shouldn’t it? Talking about Galileo doesn’t get satellites off the ground. EGNOS, on the other hand, is up and running, and has been since 2009. If the object is to build confidence in European savoir faire, why not talk about a real success like EGNOS?
By Peter Gutierrez
Some of the specific technical issues behind the latest delay for Galileo’s first full operational capability (FOC) satellites have already been reported. The story, as it is told, generally starts with a late navigation payload delivery by British firm Surrey Satellite Technology to the German prime contractor, OHB. Next, OHB ran into issues with the payload and the platform, further stretching out the timeline.
By Peter Gutierrez
