page_title: Galileo (satellite navigation)
section_title: Ground segment
hierarchical_section_title: Galileo (satellite navigation) / System description / Ground segment
caption_attribution_description: English: Galileo IOT L-band antenna at ESA's Redu ground station. Redu’s 20-m antenna plays an important part during in-orbit testing, allowing for high-resolution monitoring of the L-band navigation signal coming from each Galileo satellite.&#91;1&#93;
context_page_description: Galileo is a global navigation satellite system that went live in 2016, created by the European Union through the European GNSS Agency, headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, with two ground operations centres in Fucino, Italy, and Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. The €10 billion project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. One of the aims of Galileo is to provide an independent high-precision positioning system so European nations do not have to rely on the US GPS, or the Russian GLONASS systems, which could be disabled or degraded by their operators at any time. The use of basic Galileo services is free and open to everyone. The higher-precision capabilities are available for paying commercial users. Galileo is intended to provide horizontal and vertical position measurements within 1-metre precision, and better positioning services at higher latitudes than other positioning systems. Galileo is also to provide a new global search and rescue function as part of the MEOSAR system.
  The first Galileo test satellite, the GIOVE-A, was launched 28 December 2005, while the first satellite to be part of the operational system was launched on 21 October 2011.
context_section_description: The system's orbit and signal accuracy is controlled by a ground segment consisting of:
  Two ground control centres, located in Oberpfaffenhofen and Fucino for Satellite and Mission Control
  Six telemetry, tracking & control (TT&C) stations, located in Kiruna, Kourou, Nouméa, Sainte-Marie, Réunion, Redu and Papeete
  Ten mission data uplink stations (ULS), two per site, located in Svalbard, Kourou, Papeete, Sainte-Marie, Réunion and Nouméa
  Several worldwide distributed reference sensor stations (GSS)
  A data dissemination network between all geographically distributed locations
  One service centre, located in Madrid, to help Galileo users.
caption: Galileo IOT L-band antenna at ESTRACK Redu Station
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