GALILEO IOV AND FOC

The main purpose of the testing facilities is to verify the performance of the payloads on the Galileo satellites.  For the IOV phase, RSS has as Customer, Inmarsat.

The first two IOV satellites launched in mid-2011 atop a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, were successfully tested by the IOT team in Redu.

The testing of the satellites involves measuring radio frequency and baseband parameters for the navigation L-band downlink and the C-band uplink.

In addition, RSS started some preparatory and maintenance activities for the FOC phase. This phase was a different contract in which the final Customer was Spaceopal, a joint venture between Telespazio and DLR. Redu Space Services is  in charge of carrying out the IOT tests of the FOC satellites based on the successful experience during the IOV phase.

As part of the Galileo programme, the infrastructure at Redu was expanded to host Galileo’s satellite in-orbit testing facilities and a Galileo sensor station.

Client: EC/ESA