Engineers of the Galileo Programme contributing to the deployment of E5a-QP

In April, Galileo marked a step forward with the deployment of a new signal component, known as E5a Quasi Pilot, on every other of Europe’s satellite navigation constellation. This upgrade makes Galileo signals easier to access, particularly on emerging mass-market, low-power devices used for internet-of-things and smart-city applications. 

The introduction of this new Galileo signal component follows an extensive series of design, testing and validation that demonstrated the value of the signal and the feasibility of implementing new signal components on current Galileo satellites.

Starting 2020, a design phase explored how to reconfigure the Galileo satellites’ payload to integrate the new signal component. Following on, a series of tests were run on engineering models at ESA’s Navigation Payload Laboratory to demonstrate the feasibility and performance benefits that can be achieved with the new signal component.

In 2023, the solution was then validated using an in-orbit test bench: a duo of Galileo satellites operating in an elliptical orbit reconfigured to transmit the new signal component. The signal was measured at Galileo In-Orbit Test facility at ESEC in Belgium and DLR’s Signal Monitoring Facility in Germany, and successfully acquired and tracked by a set of receivers at ESTEC in the Netherlands.