Galileo's Second Coming Soon

The European Space Agency (ESA) stands ready to raise the curtain on Galileo’s second act, with the GIOVE-B experimental and validation satellite tentatively set for an April 28 launch from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. ESA plans to simultaneously stage special events at several of its European centers to mark the event.

In December, the European Parliament gave final approval to the 2008 European Union (EU) budget, which includes full public funding for the system. But with money supply obstacles purportedly cleared, new hurdles loom in an increasingly murky contract-award scenario.

ESA has reportedly modified the satellite’s signal generator to broadcast the multiplex binary-offset carrier (MBOC) signal on the Open Service, enacting a July 2007 agreement between the EU and the United States on a common interoperable signal.

GIOVE-B will carry one hydrogen maser and two rubidium clocks. The passive hydrogen masers are designed to keep time with an accuracy of around one nanosecond per day, compared to rubidium clocks carried by GIOVE-A and GPS satellites, accurate to 10 nanoseconds.

Builders Wanted. In March of last year, ESA contracted with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) to provide a third satellite, named GIOVE-A2.

According to one report, the European Satellite Navigation Industries (ESNI) consortium has begun construction of four more in-orbit validation satellites. A different report surfaced at the end of 2007 asserting that the ESNI consortium was to be dismantled under new Galileo arrangements, with the construction phase to be managed by ESA itself. GPS World could not secure confirmation of either story. ESA has advertised for a new Head of the Galileo Procurement Office, with closing date for applications January 18, 2008.

European governments will entertain competitive bidding for portions of the satellite constellation. Transport ministers decided in late November 2007 that the 26 Galileo satellites will be purchased in three batches. The first 10 satellites could go to a single contracting team, or be split between two competitors, at the discretion of ESA and the European Commission.

“We are free to do whatever makes most sense,” a European government official stated. “It could be all 10 for one company, or an even split, or eight and two. We will decide when we see the final bids.”

This approach opens a door for SSTL and another successful small-satellite builder, OHB Systems of Germany, to enter the fray with larger aerospace contractors — Thales Alenia Space, Finmeccanica, and EADS Astrium, the original founders of ESNI in 2000, known then as Galileo Industries — without having to prove they can construct the entire 26-satellite constellation.

Earlier bickering among EU member nations and their respective aerospace contractors over “the whole enchilada,” and the general unwieldiness of the aggregated ESNI consortium, produced this division of labor. Different groups of Galileo’s 26 satellites may now be produced by competing teams.

ESA will issue a request for information in the current quarter, with contracts to be awarded by October, the first spacecraft due in 2009, and launches from 2010 through 2012. If reality adheres to this schedule, Galileo will meets its latest-announced operational date of 2013 — when the United States may begin launching its first Block IIIA satellites.

GLONASS Ups Its Ante

One of the three GLONASS satellites launched on December 25, 2007, GLONASS 723 in orbital slot 11 on frequency channel 0, was set healthy on January 22. Meanwhile, operators decommissioned five older satellites during the previous week. The Russian navigation satellite constellation currently has 14 satellites operating and set to healthy.

The five decommissioned spacecraft — 794, 789, 711, 792, and 798 — had all been set to unhealthy previously; in some cases, for more than a year. Three satellites launched on October 26, 2007, have been declared operational, and once the two remaining December launchees are fully commissioned and set to healthy, a total constellation of 16 satellites will make GLONASS signals available across 90 percent of Russia and 80 percent of the globe, according to Russian officials. The country has six more satellites scheduled for launch later in 2008.

Public Scolding. In a January 23 speech, Russian first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov, who oversees the country’s military-industrial complex and has been a prominent cheerleader for GLONASS, for the first time expressed major criticism.

“Currently the number of satellites in orbit does not allow the full coverage of the Russian territory. System accuracy is not up to international standards. These standards are well-known: the standards of GPS.”

Ivanov called for the Roscomos space agency’s leaders to take “personal responsibility for the development of particular components of GLONASS and the system as a whole,” reprimanding them for the system’s operational shortcomings.

According to reports, GLONASS position accuracy varies between tens of meters, compared to GPS’s on the order of one meter.

Ivanov said production output at plants manufacturing the satellites is still inadequate. “Devices on the satellites have not yet reached the necessary reliability level. Unfortunately, competitive domestic navigation equipment is still not available on the Russian market,” he said. (See story in this issue’s Business section on a GLONASS/GPS receiver for sale in Russia.)

New Pad. Ivanov wants future GLONASS launches to take place, not from Kazakhstan, but on Russian soil from 2016. “We now also have to concentrate on erecting a new cosmodrome, Vostochny, in Russia’s far east. We’ll practically have to build a new city.”

Russia holds a leadership position in commercial space launches currently, leasing booster space aboard its rockets to other nations and ventures. A launch facility under its own control could strengthen that position.

A fully operational GLONASS will optimistically comprise 24 GLONASS-M and GLONASS-K satellites by 2010, with 21 transmitting signals and three on-orbit spares. The first two improved GLONASS-K satellites are set for 2009 launches.

GLONASS-K, proffers an entirely new model based on a non-pressurized platform. No official word has surfaced yet on the conclusion of negotiations to add a CDMA signal to the new satellites, to make GLONASS at least partially interoperable with GPS and Galileo.

Rising oil revenues have fueled a resurgence in the sat nav system; Russia allocated 9.88 billion rubles ($380 million) for GLONASS in 2007, up from 4.7 billion ($181 million) in 2006. Boosting three satellites per rocket launch affords the capability of increasing constellation numbers by leaps and bounds. However, the satellites’ short design lifespan of three years also means that numbers can fall rapidly.

Record Set by GPS

GPS IIR-18 (M), launched from Cape Canaveral on December 20, has logged a record-setting go-time under a joint U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin team, who conducted the on-orbit deployment and checkout of all spacecraft systems in just over three days. Upon completion of navigation payload initialization, the satellite was declared operational on January 2 for both civil and military users.

The satellite, dubbed SVN57, joins a constellation comprising 31 operational satellites overall. GPS IIR-18 (M) will replace SVN36, which in turn will replace SVN37 and be placed in orbital slot C1.

NOAA Point on Global Monitoring

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will lead an international effort to pinpoint locations of more than 40 global positioning satellites in Earth orbit, to ensure the accuracy of GPS data. NOAA personnel will compile and analyze satellite orbit data from 10 analysis centers worldwide to ensure the accuracy of GPS information. For the next four years, NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey will serve as the Analysis Center Coordinator for the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Service, a voluntary federation of more than 200 organizations that provide continuous global satellite-tracking data.