Spaceflight

At noon today central European time the European Space Agency  (ESA) and the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA), which oversees the Galileo satellite navigation programme, will sign an agreement in Paris.

The agreement continues the co-operation that ESA had with GSA forerunner, the Galileo Joint Undertaking organisation and includes certification of the Galileo system and its augmentation service, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and security activities for Galileo and EGNOS.

Galileo's In-Orbit Validation phase, which covers the launch and operation of the Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE)-B spacecraft this December and the first four of the constellation's satellites, to be launched next year is also part of the agreement, as is joint work on European Union (EU) Sixth Framework Programme projects and the integration of EGNOS for Galileo related services.

The GSA took over from the GJU at the beginning of the year but the agreement is only being signed now because of what were outstanding issues relating to the non-EU ESA member states.