Testing ESA contract for QinetiQ

QinetiQ has signed a €7.3 million, four year contract, covering its contribution to the European 'Galileo InReach' Consortium for Phase CDE1 of the European Galileo system.

The Consortium, led by the Belgian company Septentrio Satellite Navigation (SSN), is contracted by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop the Galileo second source Test User Segment (TUS). This will play a crucial role in the end-to-end evaluation and performance validation of the Galileo system during the In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase.

The Consortium previously competitively bid, won and successfully completed the Phase C0 contract of the Galileo TUS. This addressed atmospheric propagation analysis, validation of the user requirements, receiver architecture design and specification for the test support tools (TST). Phase CDE1 was awarded by ESA as a follow on contract to build on these.

The main activities being led by QinetiQ include more comprehensive propagation analysis, security module development, and TST design, build and use. The ionospheric propagation analysis will be performed by the QinetiQ Centre for Propagation Analysis and Atmospheric Research (CPAR) and will theoretically validate the ESA expected performance.