Galileo at the service of future missions in space

While Galileo is already providing very precise Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services everywhere on Earth, its services continue to evolve to meet user needs. The upcoming Galileo Second Generation satellites will allow the provision of new services beyond the scope of terrestrial applications, moving above the Earth’s atmosphere, in Low, Medium, Geostationary Orbit or even further.

For instance, satellites from other EU Space Programme components such as the Copernicus Sentinels and the forthcoming IRIS² constellation as well as other LEO constellations, scientific missions, and planned Moon missions could benefit from new Galileo services.

The Galileo Space Service is being developed as part of a significant international effort, conducted under auspices of the United Nations International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG), to ensure that navigation signals from the different GNSS systems are interoperable and accessible to Space users. The so-called “Interoperable GNSS Space Service Volume (SSV)” is the common framework to which Galileo contributes.

An important element for the Space Service is the Galileo Antenna Pattern. This pattern describes the signal’s emission from the Navigation Antenna of the Galileo satellites in every direction. 

Through technical cooperation between the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, DG DEFIS and the European Space Agency, and with the support of EUSPA, a model has been developed for a Galileo Reference Antenna Pattern and it is now available to Space users. 

The Galileo Reference Antenna Pattern document can be found in the Electronic Library of the GSC website.