Galileo Satellites Awarded to OHB and SSTL
January 7, 2010The European Commission announced on January 7 the award of contracts for deployment of Galileo’s initial operational capability in space. The first order of 14 satellites goes to OHB System AG of Bremen, Germany. The EC also bestowed a contract for system support services upon Thales Alenia Space of Italy, and one for launch services to Arianespace of France. The Commission states that these steps will lead to initial deployment and service provision of Europe’s satellite navigation system as of early 2014.
The remaining three procurement contracts, for the ground mission infrastructure, the ground control infrastructure, and the operations should be awarded by mid-2010.
Satellites. The OHB order for 14 satellites carries a value of €566 million (US $811 million), with delivery of the first satellite in July 2012. One satellite is expected every 1.5 month thereafter, with the last one scheduled to be delivered in March 2014.
A so-called framework contract with both competing consortia was signed in December, leaving open the award of a subsequent 18 further satellites from either OHB or EADS-Astrium GmBH, depending on which company provides the most advantageous offer. The Commission intends to follow a strategy of double sourcing to lower risks, particularly in terms of delivery schedules, and to increase flexibility.
Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), owned by EADS Astrium and located in the United Kingdom, will supply 14 navigation payloads for the deployment satellites. SSTL teamed with OHB System to bid on provision of operational Galileo satellites at the end of 2007, with OHB taking the role of prime contractor and builder of the spacecraft bus, and SSTL taking responsibility for the navigation payloads.
Each satellite will carry two different types of highly accurate atomic clocks that generate navigation messages broadcast by the satellites. SSTL will also manufacture some of the electronics to interface the satellite bus built by OHB-System and the navigation payload. SSTL previously built GIOVE-A, the first Galileo in-orbit validation experimental satellite, broadcasting the first signal to successfully secure the critical Galileo frequency filing with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in January 2006. GIOVE-A is now in its fifth year of operations, exceeding its 2.25-year specified lifetime.
OHB-System will assume responsibility for developing the satellite platform and overall integration of the satellites. The 14 satellites will be assembled at its facilities in Bremen.
Previously awarded to EADS Astrium, two of four in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites are scheduled to begin space journeys by the end November 2010, followed by the other two in April 2011.
Launch. The contract with Arianespace encompasses five Russian-built Soyuz launchers, each carrying two satellites. The value of the contract amounts to €397 million. The first launch is scheduled to take place in October 2012 and will be followed by four to five launches per year. The contract also contains options for either two additional Soyuz launches (carrying two satellites) or one Ariane 5 (carrying four satellites).
Support. The contract awarded to ThalesAleniaSpace for the system support services covers the industrial services needed to support the European Space Agency for the integration and the validation of the Galileo system. It has a value of €85 million, runs from 2010 till 2014, and includes system engineering, system performance engineering, signal-in-space engineering, security engineering, ground segment engineering, system assembly, integration and verification, and product assurance.
The actual contracts are expected to be signed in the next few weeks between the chosen companies and the European Space Agency, on behalf of the European Commission.
The Commission provided this schedule for the provision of the different Galileo services: the Open Service, the Public Regulated Service, and the Search And Rescue Service in early 2014; the Safety-of-Life Service and the Commercial Service will be tested as of 2014 and will be provided as Galileo reaches full operational capability (FOC) with a constellation of 30 satellites; that final FOC date was not specified.
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