Galileo Satellite Achieves High Earth Orbit Positioning with GPS

When the European Space Agency launched its Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element-A (GIOVE-A) satellite in 2005, its main mission was to transmit Galileo test signals that secured the system’s frequencies, evaluate hardware under space environmental conditions, and so forth. ESA formally decommissioned the spacecraft in the middle of 2012 after the agency had finished checking out the first Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites. The agency then moved GIOVE-A into a “graveyard orbit” about 100 kilometers above Galileo’s 23,222-kilometer altitude... More

(Source: Inside GNSS - Apr 17)