Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has signed a contract worth over €100 million with the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) to provide maintenance and other support services for EGNOS V2 (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System) for a period of four years.
The EGNOS system enhances the accuracy, reliability and integrity of positioning signals by improving the performance of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as GPS and, in the future, Galileo. EGNOS’s “Safety of Life” service is used in aviation for landings, enabling precision approaches at European airports without requiring ground guidance systems. This service has significantly improved operational safety and efficiency for the greater benefit of European operators.
Thales Alenia Space will build on its long-standing expertise in the engineering, development, testing and maintenance of the current EGNOS system, along with its development of EGNOS V2, now underway, to provide maintenance of the EGNOS V2 system for EUSPA and the European Union satellite navigation community from 2023 to 2026.
Thales Alenia Space will provide operational support and servicing in case of incidents (especially hardware and software troubleshooting and repairs) to deliver optimal 24/7 support for EGNOS. In addition, it will provide the upgraded or modified versions needed to ensure “Safety Of Life” service.
“With the growing use of EGNOS services in Europe, maintaining the System in operational conditions and adapting it to its evolving context is more than ever a fundamental activity for EUSPA. With this new contract, we secure the infrastructure capabilities over the coming years, and we are working closer to the industry to more efficiently answer EGNOS users expectations.” said Jean-Marc Piéplu, EGNOS Exploitation Programme Manager at EUSPA.
“With this latest contract, Thales Alenia Space bolsters its European and export leadership in satellite navigation and supports the success of the EGNOS system in Europe,” said Benoit Broudy, Vice-President, Navigation at Thales Alenia Space in France. “European industry has built up outstanding expertise and credentials in satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS), underpinning the export success of this technology, which has already been deployed in South Korea, Africa and the Indian Ocean.”
