It was necessary to sign a new tranche of the original framework contract originally signed in October between Thales Alenia Space and European Space Agency for the operational phase of the Galileo ground mission segment and security facility.

The statement is as follows: 

Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between Thales (67 percent) and Leonardo (33 percent), announced that it has signed a new tranche of the framework contract originally signed on October 18 with the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency (GSA), to develop and deploy new versions of the ground-based Galileo Mission Segment (GMS) and the Galileo Security Facility (GSF), both known under the designation “WP2X”.

The new tranche of this contract, worth about 130 million euros through June 2021, will concern the following:

• Completion of PRS (Public Regulated Service)
• Adaptation of the ground segment to provide an interface, via computerized POCPs (Point of Contact Platforms), between:
• The Galileo Security Monitoring Center (GSMC), which manages PRS access to the new system
•  Government entities which control access on their own receiving stations

Thales Alenia Space will direct a consortium including major companies in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. It will call on the Thales group for both prime contractor support and for the architecture and integration of security components and the POCPs, and on Leonardo for the Galileo Security Facility (GSF), which manages PRS service and the POCPs.

“We are very honored that ESA, along with GSA and the European Commission, have awarded us this new tranche of the Galileo ground segment contract,” said Jean Loïc Galle, CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “Along with our partners, we will be offering the best possible solutions to address both the needs of European citizens and all Galileo users, via improved services, and meet Europe’s strategic requirement for independence in deploying an appropriate PRS service.”