The European Union Agency for the Space Programme, EUSPA, is launched today marking the start of a new era for EU Space. Building on the legacy of the European GNSS Agency, EUSPA will take on more responsibilities to create even more opportunities from Space for EU citizens and its economy.

Beacon Awareness Day (#406Day) on April 6 is an opportunity to celebrate the amazing work carried out by Search and Rescue teams around the world that risk their lives on a daily basis to save people in distress. It also aims to remind the owners of Search and Rescue beacons the need to register their beacon and test them in a regular basis, in particular for what concerns their batteries and, for those already registered, to update their Cospas-Sarsat contact details.

Galileo Open Service and Enhanced SAR/Galileo Service Performance Reports of the fourth quarter of 2020 (covering October, November and December 2020) are available under the Electronic Library of the European GNSS Service Centre web portal.

The processing of the Galileo signal in a multi-constellation environment is providing important benefits and opportunities for precision farming, enhancing the performance of livestock and increasing the achieved accuracy in difficult mountain environments. A Spanish company, Ixoriguè, has integrated Galileo in its positioning solution as part of a combined product for livestock management.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) together with the European Commission have published an Information Note on the Galileo High Accuracy Service, providing an overview of the main characteristics of the service, along with information on features such as service levels, target performance, an implementation roadmap, and an overview of the target markets for the service. You can download the Information Note here.

Galileo has started testing Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) in the signal-in-space, allowing the first-ever OSNMA-protected position fix to be successfully computed. Testing will continue over the next months, ahead of a so-called “public observation” phase. This is the first-ever transmission of authentication features in open GNSS signals of a global navigation system.

SWEPOS is the CORS network for satellite positioning in Sweden. From the introduction of Galileo in its service in 2018, the network users have observed higher availability and better performances, especially when using a high cut off angle or in harsh environments. Connections to SWEPOS network have increased rapidly, and the number of Galileo users in the region continues to grow.

The Galileo Performance Workshop 2021 led by the European GNSS Agency will offer an in-depth analysis of the performance of Galileo and how it is evaluated for users.

A year after declared operational, the Galileo Return Link Service has been exceeding the performance levels committed in the SAR/Galileo Service Definition Document. With the recent upgrade in its European ground facilities, Galileo SAR is leading the way as an important component of the International Cospas-Sarsat Programme.

In the smart energy grids of the future, all energy market participants will communicate with each other, making energy supplies more reactive. This will bring many benefits, including reduced costs, improved efficiency and the seamless integration of the distribution of energy sources, including renewable energy. However, for smart grids to operate successfully they will have to be based on a solid and robust synchronisation infrastructure. This is where GNSS comes in.