After an eight-year delay, Galileo is set to officially go live today and will be available to the public for the first time. Provided you have a suitable receiver, such as a smartphone from BQ or a combination antenna from Digital Yacht. So far, only 18 of the planned 30 satellites are in orbit, so the positioning system will not be available at all times. However, the positioning accuracy should already be significantly better than that of the American GPS system.
Faster help
In addition to more precise navigation, Galileo is primarily intended to improve the localisation of epirbs from the Cospas-Sarsat system. As all Galileo satellites can receive the emergency calls and forward them to the ground station, the alerting time should be reduced to around ten minutes. Previously, it could take hours for a satellite to come within range of the epib.
Galileo was actually supposed to start operations in 2008. However, technical problems and disagreements between the countries involved repeatedly delayed the launch. Galileo should be fully operational and available worldwide by 2020, by which time the distribution of receivers should also have improved. According to EU guidelines, all new car models should be compatible with Galileo from 2018.
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Hauke Schmidt
Test & Technology editor
