| | |  | GNSS 2003 will be held in Graz | |
ESA at GNSS 2003 in Graz: Highlights on satellite navigation for Europe
14 April 2003
ESA PR 25-2003. The European Space Agency will be joining forces with the European Commission in a major contribution to GNSS 2003, the seventh in a series of international conferences devoted to global satellite navigation systems, to be held in Graz, Austria, from 22 to 24 April.
This European conference, organised by the Austrian Institute of
Navigation (OVN), will offer a series of talks, debates and exhibitions
centring on satellite navigation in today's and tomorrow's world. ESA and
the Commission will be contributing to the programme of talks and also to
the industrial exhibition, where they will be jointly hosting a stand
devoted to satellite navigation in Europe at which Galileo, the first
civil satellite navigation and positioning system, and EGNOS, the European
Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, will be on display.
GNSS 2003 will be a valuable opportunity to report on how matters stand
with this strategic programme - and experts from both the Agency and the
Commission will be on hand to deal with questions from journalists
attending the conference.
Developed by ESA in cooperation with the European Union and co-funded by
the two organisations on a 50-50 basis, Galileo is a complete civil
system, designed to be operational from 2008 and to provide the world in
general and Europeans in particular with an accurate, secure and certified
satellite positioning system.
EGNOS is the European Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS), a joint
project of the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Commission (EC)
and Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air
Navigation. It is Europe’s contribution to the first stage of the global
navigation satellite system (GNSS) and is a precursor to Galileo, the full
global satellite navigation system under development in Europe.
Satellite navigation has many potential applications in road, rail, air
and maritime traffic control, synchronisation of data transmission between
banks, etc., and the economic potential over the coming 15 years is
tremendous, with an estimated 4.6 return on investment and the creation of
more than 100 000 jobs.
GNSS 2003 will be held at the Convention Centre, Grazer Congress, located
in the historic heart of Graz, cultural capital of Europe for 2003.
For further information, please contact:
ESA, Media Relations Service
Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
| |
