On 17 December 2011 Galileo transmitted its state-of-the-art modulated signals across three spectral bands, known as E1, E5 and E6, simultaneously, picked up by test receivers at ESA's ground station at Redu in Belgium and the Navigation Laboratory at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands
Last weekend all Galileo signals were activated simultaneously across these bands for the very first time, following the switch-on and ‘outgassing’ – warming up to vent potentially harmful vapours – of power amplifiers on the remaining E6 band.