IAINAV

ESA signing Galileo agreements with EU GNSS Agency (GSA) and the EC, on 15 December 2016. From left to right: Jan Woerner, ESA Director General; Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA); Lowri Evans, Director-General of the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission. ESA has overseen the design and deployment of Galileo on behalf of the Commission, with system operations and service provision due to be entrusted to the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency next year. ©ESA Id 370933

Early in December the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that Europe’s own Galileo satellite navigation system had begun operating, with the satellites delivering positioning, navigation and timing information to users around the globe.

On 9 December the European Commission, owner of the system, formally announced the start of Galileo Initial Services, the first step towards full operational capability. Further launches will continue to build the satellite constellation, which will gradually improve the system performance and availability worldwide.