NovAtel Inc. (NASDAQ:NGPS), a precise positioning technology company, announced that it has been accepted as a Full Member of Galileo Services, the first company outside Europe to be inducted into this leading group of organizations. Galileo Services is a non-profit organization made up of a consortium of businesses and agencies involved with Galileo satellite system downstream technology and services. One of the goals of the organization is to develop technologies and test out value-added services and applications in order to fully exploit all possible Galileo business potential. Galileo is the European Union’s state-of-the-art Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which is expected to be fully operable from 2010 with up to 30 satellites orbiting the earth. It is designed for both civilian and government purposes and will be controlled and operated by civil management.”As a Full Member of Galileo Services, NovAtel Inc. has joined an international group of companies who are working towards creating a complete vision of the Galileo system and the businesses it has the potential to produce,” stated Tony Murfin, NovAtel’s Vice President, Business Development. “NovAtel’s contributions to the technology and initial commercialization opportunities associated with the Galileo satellite system development are something of which we are extremely proud. We look forward to the opportunities that will arise with the growth of new markets being created by the Galileo system.”

“NovAtel has been involved in the development of Galileo technology since 2000. Most recently, the Company has made a significant technological contribution with their participation in the development of the Galileo Reference Receiver for the Galileo ground system,” added Gard Ueland, President of Galileo Services. “Galileo Services selects its members on the basis of their expertise and motivation to undertake future Galileo business opportunities. NovAtel’s business and technological knowledge will be a definite asset to the Galileo Services organization, contributing to our goal of enhancing the economic value of the Galileo system.” [via press release]

Galileo is Europe’s satellite radio navigation programme. It was launched on the initiative of the European Commission and developed jointly with the European Space Agency. With the advent of Galileo, new impetus will be given to the worldwide market for satellite navigation, positioning and timing services. These are expected to bring new prospects to various commercial sectors and improve the daily life of citizens around the world. While boosting the development of new applications by European industry, Galileo will also create many jobs across the EU.
In order to make maximum use of this opportunity and stimulate such economic development, the European Commission adopted today a Green Paper on Satellite Navigation Applications. This document will give all interested stakeholders an opportunity to provide their opinion on the development of satellite navigation applications, and in particular on the role the public sector could play in creating an appropriate framework and defining concrete targets for such applications.
[via businessupdated.com]

With the advent of the European satellite navigation system Galileo, new impetus will be given to the worldwide market for satellite navigation, positioning and timing services. These are expected to bring new prospects to various commercial sectors and improve the daily life of citizens around the world. While boosting the development of new applications by European industry, Galileo will also create many jobs across the EU. In order to make maximum use of this opportunity and stimulate such economic development, the European Commission adopted today a Green Paper on Satellite Navigation Applications. This document will give all interested stakeholders an opportunity to provide their opinion on the development of satellite navigation applications, and in particular on the role the public sector could play in creating an appropriate framework and defining concrete targets for such applications.
[full article]

NANJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — The European Union’s Galileo satellite navigation system, a rival to the reigning global positioning system (GPS) of the United States, is expected to be operational in China in 2008.    The 30-satellite system, with a navigational fix accurate to within one meter, will provide safe, reliable and accurate navigational information for Chinese users in fields of civil aviation, railway, waterway and road transportation, according to a Sino-EU technology cooperation symposium in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province.

    China officially joined the project in 2004 and invested 200 million euros in a Galileo training and application research center based in Southeast University in Nanjing.

    The center carries out research on the satellite receiver, chips and communication system and provides scientific training for the Galileo project, said Li Jianqing, head of the technology department of the university.
[news.xinhuanet]

Russia is negotiating with other countries on the possible joint use of Russia’s global positioning satellite system Glonass, the head of the Russian Space Agency said Tuesday.Glonass, a Russian version of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), is designed for both military and civilian purposes, and allows users to identify their positions in real time. It can also be used in geological prospecting.

“We are in active talks with India, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other countries on the joint use of the Glonass space system,” Anatoly Perminov said.

“As far as other countries are concerned, we are primarily in talks with the United States and the European Space Agency to prepare agreements on the use of Glonass jointly with GPS and Galileo [satellite navigation systems],” Perimov said.

He said Glonass has been in an intensified stage of development since the president urged for active work on the system.

“The country’s leadership is paying particular attention to the development of the system,” Perminov said. “The Russian president personally set the task of not only actively developing it [the system], but also putting it into operation as soon as possible.”[full article]

60 per cent of WCDMA handsets shipped worldwide will have integrated GPS/Galileo receivers by 2010, says a report by market research firm Berg Insight.
The EU, however, remains vague about future regulations regarding positioning of emergency calls and some member states have not even introduced the common emergency number 112. André Malm, telecom analyst at Berg Insight, however believes that new regulations will be considered once the European Galileo satellite positioning system becomes operational in circa 2010. ‘A future EU directive calling for Galileo positioning of all mobile emergency calls would at the same time improve public safety and create a mass-market for European high technology.
[via digital-media-asia]

The European Union signed two scientific cooperation agreements with one the world’s fastest growing research powers - the Republic of Korea - on 22 November.

The science and technology (S&T) agreement will enable researchers from the EU and South Korea to participate in one another’s research programmes and protects intellectual property rights (IPR), while a specific agreement on fusion energy research will promote collaboration in fusion research programmes. This is intended to complement work within the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, to which both the EU and South Korea are party. The new agreements can only enhance the cooperation that is already ongoing between EU and South Korean researchers. Not only are both partners in ITER; they are both also signatories to the Galileo project to develop Europe’s first satellite navigation system.

[via cordis.eu]

At the occasion of a successful joint EU-India Aviation Summit held in New Delhi, Vice-President Jacques Barrot and India`s Minister for Civil Aviation Mr. Praful Patel signed a  “Joint Declaration” that will lay the foundation for closer cooperation between the EU and India in a range of areas of civil aviation.

At the EU-India Aviation Summit, Vice-President Barrot also invited India to become associated in major EU technological programmes such as GALILEO, the satellite navigation programme, and SESAR, the air traffic management project.

The EU-India Aviation Summit was highly successful in bringing together more than 300 leading representatives of the Indian and the European Union aviation sectors representing public authorities, airlines, airports, aerospace industries and service providers. The summit provided a very effective platform for identifying priority areas and ways forward in closer EU-India aviation co-operation for the future.
[via traveldailynews.com]

Galileo Industries and German aerospace organization DLR on Tuesday (Nov. 7) broke ground for one of two planned Galileo navigation satellite control centers in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich.
The partners said they will spend about €16 million ($20.3 million) on infrastructure construction. However, the budget does not include electronics and IT equipment for which Galileo Industries is the main contractor. For the “in-orbit validation” phase, which includes four satellites, the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA) have budgeted €1.5 billion. The full, 30-satellite constellation will cost €3.5 billion, according to a spokesman for the Bavarian state government.
The Galileo project is expected to create about 100.000 jobs throughout Europe, many of them at Galileo project partners Telespatio SpA in Italy, Inmarsat in the U.K., HispaSat and AENA in Spain, CNES in France and ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany.
The second Galileo control center will be built in Rome. Besides the two control centers, the project includes a L-band signal center and an upload station that will provide software updates and ultra-precise timing signals to orbiting satellites.
[commsdesign.com]

In an effort to end Western monopoly, China has started building its own Global Satellite Navigation System, ‘Compass’, which will also cover parts of neighbouring countries, the state media reported today.

The planned network, also referred to as Beidou Navigation System, entails the launch of five geostationary and 30 mobile satellites.

China plans to launch two Compass navigation satellites at the beginning of next year. The system, which will provide highly accurate positioning and time references, will cover China and parts of neighbouring countries by 2008 before being developed into a global network, Xinhua news agency reported.

The system will provide two navigation services. The Open Services is designed to provide users with positioning accuracy within 10 meters, velocity accuracy with 0.2 metre per second and timing accuracy within 50 nanoseconds.

The Authorised System will offer “safer” positioning, velocity, timing communications for authorised users.

China is willing to cooperate with other countries in developing its satellite navigation industry to allow the Compass system to operate with other global satellite positioning systems, the report said.

China has already joined the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency’s 3.5 billion-euro Galileo Project to develop a satellite-navigation system independent of the US military global positioning system (GPS) monopoly.
[hindu.news]