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After more than 17 years, the great Galileo project is becoming a reality. This Wednesday, an Ariane 5 rocket must put into orbit the four new satellites (26/30) positioned at 23 000 kilometers of altitude allowing Galileo, the European GPS, to be almost fully operational at 100%. Recall that the service was opened a year and a half ago, the launch of the latest satellite should improve the accuracy of the system.
Wednesday's shooting "will mark the end of a cycle started in 2011," said Stéphane Israel, president of Arianespace, a launch services company. At this date, "we will have launched the first 26 satellites with a metronome regularity". There will still be 4 satellites to deploy until 2021 but the last 6 are intended to replace the first generation of satellites.
"Galileo is becoming a great success because its accuracy is much higher" than that of GPS ( American) and it offers more signal dating, says Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the French space agency CNES
The boss of CNES notes a "tremendous acceleration of the number of users" of Galileo in the world since the launch of the first services. Galileo is now accessible on the latest models of smartphones, including those of Apple and Samsung.
In February, the number of users was estimated at nearly 100 million. In June, Jean-Yves Le Gall evoked "200 million users" and "thinks" that we are now close to "300 million".
The horizon becomes clearer for the European GPS that has known many difficulties since its beginnings in 1999 with the objective of commissioning in 2008 ….
In fact, no private company wanted to finance the project at 100% and it was not until 2007 that the plan of industrial financing is finally completed. Tired of waiting for the goodwill of the industrialists involved, the European Union undertakes to finance the infrastructure with public funds. The Twenty-Seven at the time decided that the public money would finance the satellite infrastructure at a cost of 3.4 billion euros, an additional 2.4 billion compared to the billion euros already injected, on a total cost, including operation, of 10 billion euros
In 2007, only one satellite was launched and the year of opening of the service is postponed to 2012. In 2014, the satellites Doresa and Milena do not join the planned orbit. The consternation is such that a commission of inquiry is opened in collaboration with the European Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA). At the end of 2014, only four satellites are actually in orbit. At this date, 4 billion euros have already been spent.
In 2015, things are finally accelerating. Soyuz, with this success this time, puts two new satellites of the constellation into orbit, bringing the total to 6.
The program then reaches its cruising speed with the launching of two satellites every three months. "Today, we have demonstrated that Europe has state-of-the-art know-how and technology, and a vision and determination to do great things," said the European Commissioner at the European Market. Interior and Industry, Elzbieta Bienkowska. "Determination" is the word that best characterizes the actors of this project …
At the end of 2016, it is finally possible to use European data even if the device is still incomplete. In 2017, a final incident raises the fear of the worst: it was learned that several atomic clocks of some satellites of the project were "broken down."
However, the navigation system would not be directly affected by these failures because the engineers had planned a system of redundancy in case the situation arose. Each satellite is equipped with four clocks. ESA indicated that the situation is under control even though it was still unable to explain the causes of this epidemic.
All the satellites whose clocks are affected by this epidemic, are functional, had thus badured the agency
Today, Galileo is more strategic than ever at a time when geolocation is infiltrating in many fields, a digital transformation that requires. "Some 10% of Europe's GDP now depends on satellite positioning systems, and by 2030 this percentage could rise to around 30%", explains Cnes, the French space agency.
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