Galileo prototype GIOVE-A switched off after 16 years in orbit
November 30, 2021
News from the European Space Agency Europe’s first prototype satellite for Galileo, GIOVE-A, has been formally decommissioned after […]
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News from the European Space Agency Europe’s first prototype satellite for Galileo, GIOVE-A, has been formally decommissioned after […]
Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA), acting on behalf of the European Commission, have signed a contract […]
By Richard B. Langley, Simon Banville, and Peter Steigenberger. For a brief period, and for a few hours […]
After more than four years of service as a Galileo test-bed satellite, GIOVE-B was retired on July 23. Its navigation transmitters were switched off and, according to an announcement from the European Space Agency, the satellite’s height was subsequently raised in a series of steps to place it in a so-called “graveyard” orbit where there will be no danger of it interfering with the operational Galileo satellites or other spacecraft.
This month there is good news — great news, actually — where GPS and PNT (Position, Navigation and Timing) systems are concerned. On October 22, a Russian Soyuz rocket placed in orbit the first two validation satellites, built by EADS Astrium Germany, in the Galileo PNT constellation after making its maiden launch from Kourou. Don’t confuse these recent satellites with the earlier experimental satellites, GIOVE-A launched in 2005 followed by GIOVE-B launched in 2008. These initial satellites served to preserve the Galileo ITU frequency filings and test the first-ever space borne Hydrogen Maser atomic clock, which by all accounts is proving to be extremely accurate.
GIOVE-B E1 CBOC Signal Quality AssessmentGIOVE-B has been in orbit for just over one year. How well is it performing? In particular, what can we say about one of GIOVE-B’s pioneering features: its E1 CBOC signal? In this month’s column, we take a detailed look at a particular monitoring and assessment program set up to examine the GIOVE-B signals and discuss some of its initial CBOC results. The successful operation of this program bodes well for its use in future validation campaigns.
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