Galileo completes his constellation

On September 5 th 2024, the last two satellites launched during the 12th launch of Galileo on April 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 ship GALILEO [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 LTE X16 Snapdragon MDM9655 modem 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 the Apple mobile

Within a month of the launch by Ariane 5 four new satellites of the GALILEO constellation to 18 satellites, manufacturers of components of location have already presented their new chips of location supporting the European GNSS. This allowed the Spanish company BQ to propose early September the first smartphone "Galileo-ready., equipped with the processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 652, the Aquarius X 5 more.

We could expect to find the same chip in the iPhone 7 from Apple, that fitted for the iPad and iPhone 4S 3 all its mobile devices with Qualcomm communication processors, integrating GPS reception (US) and GLONASS (Russian), it is not. With this latest smartphone, Apple revives Broadcom, waived for 2012 to ensure these functions, by integrating a chip BCM47734.

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2016 Year of GALILEO

Since my first post on GALILEO end 2011 (¹), Europe's space has increased. Despite the economic uncertainties and many 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 this year focus was squarely on GALILEO. Read more …

Galileo, here we go !

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

Not only the first two satellites Galileo were launched the following day 21 October successfully from Kourou, but more by the Russian Soyuz ! I hope you enjoy the comedy of the situation… Read more …