Europe's Galileo Satellite Network Suffers Severe Outage

European Union‘s Galileo satellite network is down. According to reports, EU’s satellites for its global positioning system have suffered severe outage since July 11th.

In a notice advisory posted by the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency online for all Galileo users, it said:

“Until further notice, users may experience service degradation on all Galileo satellites. This means that the signals may not be available nor meet the minimum performance levels defined in the service definition documents and should be employed at user’ own risk. The nominal service will be resumed as soon as possible.”

As per GNSS‘ last update about the status of its GPS satellites, Galileo network remains affected by a technical incident allegedly related to its ground infrastructure.

“The incident has led to a temporary interruption of the Galileo initial navigation and timing services, with the exception of the Galileo Search and Rescue (SAR) service. The SAR service – used for locating and helping people in distress situations for example at sea or mountains – is unaffected and remains operational.”

Galileo Satellite Network

The Galileo satellite network was developed and launched by GNSS on December 2016. Its primary purpose is to provide member nations of the Europen Union an independent high-precision positioning system, stopping their reliance on the United States’ GPS and Russia’s GLONASS.

The Galileo satellite constellation offers lower-precision service free of charge to anyone. However, its high-precision service is available for paying commercial users

Just recently, the Federal Communications Commission has approved the utilization of Galileo GPS on U.S. smartphones. The approval reportedly aims to provide users with faster and more accurate sat nav capabilities.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said:

“This breakthrough serves the public interest across many areas of our economy, including the automotive, aviation, rail, maritime, and agriculture industries. It will also produce public safety benefits by reducing risks of accidents and disaster, aiding emergency response, and synchronizing power grids and critical infrastructure.”

To date, the Galileo satellite network is widely used not just by government agencies, but by private tech firms and most of the world’s academic institutions.