Microwave Journal
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Septentrio and QinetiQ partnership delivers first Galileo PRS signal reception

MarketWatch: International

March 19, 2012

Septentrio and QinetiQ, working in close partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and their industrial partners, achieved the world’s first successful reception of the encrypted Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS) signal from the first Galileo satellites that were launched in October 2011. This is another major milestone in the Galileo European Navigation Satellite System’s development and deployment programme.

The signal was received on the Galileo PRS Test User Receiver (PRS-TUR) jointly developed by Septentrio and QinetiQ under an ESA contract. For the reception test, the receiver was installed in the Galileo Control Centre at Telespazio facilities in Fucino, Italy and operated by technical experts from ESA.

Peter Grognard, founder and CEO of Septentrio Satellite Navigation, said: “Septentrio is extremely proud of this historic milestone for the Galileo programme. This is the most important milestone for Septentrio since the reception of the world’s first Galileo signal from space on January 12, 2006 with a Septentrio receiver. We are honoured and grateful for the excellent collaboration with ESA. Septentrio is marking another industry-first on the Galileo programme, and will continue playing a key role in this exciting and ambitious European project. Today, together with our partners, we take a decisive step in the early availability of commercial PRS receivers to foster user acceptance and market success of this Galileo service.”

Leo Quinn, CEO of QinetiQ, added: “I am very proud of the part QinetiQ is playing in the Galileo programme. Working closely with ESA and our industrial partners, we are delighted to have been able to deliver real value to the programme as seen by today’s milestone success. This achievement, together with Europe’s recent commitment to a full Galileo constellation, has been a necessary step in giving European industry confidence to start investing in developing commercial PRS receiver products ready for the launch of Galileo navigation services in a few years time.”