The GSA will establish the Galileo Reference Centre in the Netherlands

The European GNSS Agency (GSA), a specialized agency of the European Union (EU) that promotes the usage of the Galileo global navigation satellite system, announced on May 31 that it will establish the Galileo Reference Centre to monitor Galileo satellites in Noordwijk, South Holland, the western Netherlands.

A signing ceremony took place at the 4th European Space Solutions conference in The Hague, the Netherlands on that day. The ceremony was attended by high officials from the European Parliament and the Netherlands.

Two satellites (the 13th and 14th Galileo satellites) were simultaneously launched one week previously on May 24 in the Galileo system, which will be operated as a 30-satellite constellation. Four more satellites will be launched on a Ariane 5ES rocket in November of this year.

The Galileo Reference Centre’s main facilities will be available for operation next year (2017). It will serve to evaluate and analyze satellite performance in the initial Galileo services that will be started in the future, and is the target of high expectations.

Reference

* The header image is a CG image of a Galileo satellite created by the European Space Agency (ESA) (©ESA–Pierre Carril, 2015)