Galileo completes his constellation [Update]

The 5 th 2024, the last two satellites launched during the 12th launch of Galileo the 28 th, were officially integrated into the Galileo constellation, thus ensuring the sustainability of all services in orbit.

Now Galileo has 25 operational satellites out of 30 satellites placed in orbit. 5 satellites being currently considered unusable for some or unavailable for others (¹). Read more …

Apple finally brings GALILEO on board [Update]

Good news, a year after its appearance on the first smartphones (¹), Apple finally integrates a GNSS receiver chipset compatible GALILEO. The iPhone 8/8+ and soon iPhone X are now equipped with the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem MDM9655 from Qualcomm, which includes a multi-GNSS receiver : GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), GALILEO (Europe) and QZSS (Japan) (²).

[Update 15/12/2017] The iPhone 6S and 7 are now compatible with Galileo signals.

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GALILEO and Apple mobiles

Less than a month before the launch by Ariane 5 of four new satellites carrying the GALILEO constellation to 18 satellites, manufacturers of tracking components have already presented their new tracking chips supporting European GNSS. This allowed the Spanish company BQ to offer the first “Galileo-ready” smartphone at the beginning of September., equipped with processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 652, l’Aquarius X5 Plus.

We might have expected to find the same chip in the iPhone 7 from Apple, which has since fitted the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3 all of its mobile devices with Qualcomm communications processors, integrating GPS reception (US) and GLONASS (Russian), it's nothing. With this latest smartphone, Apple reconnects with Broadcom, sidelined since 2012 to perform these functions, by integrating a chip BCM47734.

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2016 Year of GALILEO

Since my first post on GALILEO end 2011 (¹), space Europe has made significant progress. Despite economic uncertainties and numerous budgetary restrictions, Course and schedule have been maintained thanks to a community political flawless. This is to be welcomed because many other areas of European action didn't have the scoop.

The year 2016 has already been dubbed "the year of GALILEO".. This was the clear message of the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit (²) early March. The Munich summit covered all GNSS systems, but the focus this year was squarely on Galileo. Read more …

Galileo, here we go !

Barely published, the 20 October, my previous post about iPhone 4S new GPS chipset – allowing you to receive signals from the Russian GLONASS system – in which I inserted a skeptical comment about the future of Galileo, that I see myself caught up in the news.

Not only did the first two satellites of Galileo were launched the next day 21 October with success from Kourou, but also by the Russian Soyuz launcher ! I hope you enjoy the comic of the situation… Read more …