<2007/2/7>

by Staff Writers
Madrid, Spain (SPX) Feb 01, 2007

The recent signing of 5 new Galileo contracts worth over 40 million euros serves as further confirmation of GMV"s leading role in the implementation of Europe"s satellite navigation strategy. These contracts involve the supply of key systems and also a significant participation in the engineering and design tasks of the complete system. 
For over 20 years now GMV has been a trailblazer in various satellite-navigation activities and has built up a huge stock of knowledge and resources in this field and in complementary technologies. 
GMV"s track record over these years has won it worldwide prestige, on the strength of which it is carrying out a key role in the Galileo program. It now boasts the fourth biggest European participation in the program and the biggest Spanish participation. 
GMV is developing some of the key program elements responsible for the system"s final performance features, such as the OSPF (Orbit and Syncronisation Processing Facility), the veritable brain of the Galileo system, which calculates the precise position of the Galileo Satellites and synchronizes all the system clocks, and the IPF (Integrity Processing Facility), responsible for calculating the integrity parameters that enable Galileo to be used for safety-critical applications. 
In the control segment GMV is developing the FDF (Flight Dynamics Facility), which calculates the satellites" operational position and attitude and generates the necessary maneuvers to keep the satellites within the pre-established orbit and antenna-pointing parameters at all times. 
GMV is also developing the SPF (Service Products Facility), which facilitates the exchange of information between Galileo, the users, the service providers and other external systems, such as the GPS. 
Lastly, GMV"s Portuguese subsidiary, Skysoft, has won the contract for developing the MNE (Mission Data Dissemination Network), whose remit is to offer functions of network connectivity, security and monitoring. 
To round out these development activities, GMV is also responsible for signal experimentation of GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B, the two first satellites of the Galileo system, for which it will validate the Galileo signal, analyze the behavior of the on-board clocks and calculate the satellites" precise orbits. 
Together with the development of the key elements of Galileo infrastructure, GMV is also taking part in several research and development projects for satellite-navigation-based products and services to be used for aeronautical or defense applications or intelligent transport systems. 
In the words of Luis Mayo, CEO of GMV, "these Galileo contracts represent fulfillment of the company"s unstinting determination from the word go to play a key role in satellite-navigation infrastructure development. This has allowed us to win pole position in the development of satellite-navigation applications for diverse activity sectors". 

<来源于:Space daily>