Europe opens the eye Arctic on Galileo (SpaceDaily)

Today saw the opening of a remote site to the North in the global network Galileo ground stations. Galileo from Kiruna in the Swedish Arctic station will play a vital role in communicating with the satellites of the global system of European navigation, which are due to launch early next year.

The opening began with a procession to candles to pierce the darkness of winter: the ceremony was scheduled to coincide with the feast of St. Lucy, a popular Swedish celebration. As is traditional, the parade was led by a young woman representative "Lucia", wearing a Crown of lights.

Perched at the Summit of European landmass, Kiruna will be one of the two telemetry, followed and command (TT, C) Galileo stations during the in-orbit validation (IOV) - another is at Kourou, French Guiana, near Ecuador - monitoring satellites and transmit new orders as necessary controllers Germany Oberpfaffenhofen and Fucino in Italy Galileo ground.

Kiruna facility was officially opened by Rene Oosterlinck, Director of ESA of the Galileo Programme and the activities related to navigation and Javier Benedicto, Manager ESA project Galileo, with Paul Verhoef, Program Director of the Union European Satellite Navigation Programmes at the European Commission and Lars Persson, President and CEO of the Swedish Space (SSC) Corporation.

"I am pleased to inaugurate this station today," commented Chief Oosterlinck. "Galileo ground segment poised in line with the space segment, operations and much more." "I worked on Galileo since its beginnings, and I am pleased that it now takes shape".

Galileo in Kiruna station
Galileo quickly to become a reality - the first Galileo satellites should be launched in 2011 – bringing stations on the ground online is just as important as how satellite ready to fly.

High-precision Galileo service requires a global network of ground stations to oversee the Galileo space - satellites comprising a total of 30 satellites in medium Earth orbit, including three spare parts.

Kiruna station is hosted at Esrange Space Center of Swedish society of space. It is a station site control and follow-up and launch rockets and stratospheric balloons long-term satellite ground.

Northernmost latitude of Kiruna, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle, in the forests of Swedish Lapland - gives him a good visibility of satellites in orbit-environment, ensuring continuous coverage for exchanging data between the ground and the Galileo satellites. Remote location avoids interference signal of agglomerations.

Satellite Esrange Space Center station performs control and monitoring functions for a variety of satellite and once for the launch and early operations of the second Galileo test satellite, GIOVE-B in 2008.

Today, 13 metres in diameter at large speed antenna installation and Galileo TTC equipment have been ordered and are ready to support the initial operations of the first Galileo satellites.

Galileo in Kiruna station contains tape base and RF, monitoring, network connections, and control equipment. Meet the stringent requirements of availability for the Galileo system, the hardware is configured to include redundant internal and external.

The TTC station provides the floor space for the acquisition of the telemetry and telecommand uplink interface and bidirectional.

Remote control and data telemetry, as well as the TTC monitoring and control, data are exchanged between the TTC stations and Galileo control centers. In normal operation, the TTC station is autonomous. Technicians are required for the purposes of maintenance and defect investigation.