Cost Effective Long-Term Galileo Operations

摘要

Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system is being developed under a series of publicly-funded phases and programmes, with the intention of being fully deployed and operated as a civil, commercial venture. Its development and early deployment/in-orbit validation (IOV) phases are being undertaken with a Joint Undertaking formed by the European Commission and the European Space Agency acting as the customer for the system. At completion of the IOV phase, the concessionaire will take over operations of the Galileo system for its planned twenty-year life. A key aspect in this strategy is the Public Private Partnership scheme adopted to fund the full Galileo system deployment phase, two thirds of which allocated as private investments and one third as public contribution. The IOV phase is expected to cover through public funds the cost of the full system design, while the deployment of ground and space facilities and infrastructure is limited to just what is required for an early validation of the system concept. The Galileo operations concessionaire will be responsible for the provision of additional funds to cover the recurring costs needed to deploy the full constellation plus relevant ground facilities and run the Galileo operations, exploiting the expected revenue opportunities.