In the smart energy grids of the future, all energy market participants will communicate with each other, making energy supplies more reactive. This will bring many benefits, including reduced costs, improved efficiency and the seamless integration of the distribution of energy sources, including renewable energy. However, for smart grids to operate successfully they will have to be based on a solid and robust synchronisation infrastructure. This is where GNSS comes in.

The Galileo system was returned to its nominal state a few hours after the incident which occurred between 00:00 and 06:00 on Monday morning 14 December. This service incident is still under investigation. It is confirmed to be related to an abnormal behaviour of a ground atomic clock in the time determination function of the system. The time synchronisation and orbit determination algorithms immediately flagged the data as MARGINAL (SISA*=NAPA**) before it affected the quality of the measurements. However, the incorrect data was still uploaded to the satellites. User receivers that do not process the health and status flags, or that keep MARGINAL satellites as part of the position solution computation, may have experienced large positioning errors. The following plots present the status of the various satellites during the event and provide an estimation of the typical pseudorange errors (***) experienced by users if processing the satellites, despite being flagged as MARGINAL.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is launching the 2020 editions of its Galileo User Satisfaction Survey and EGNOS User Satisfaction Survey. These surveys play an important role in the evolution of the EGNSS programmes by feeding users’ needs and requirements into programme development.

The 3rd edition of the User Consultation Platform (UCP) for the European Space Programme will take place on 1-2 December, ahead of European Space Week 2020. This is a unique opportunity for the rapidly expanding community of space tech users to inform the organisations and institutions that oversee the programme of their experience and requirements, helping to shape the future evolution of the system. Don’t miss this opportunity to have your say – register now.

Registration for EU Space Week – Europe’s number one space event – went live on November 25. You can already sign up to attend the online event and to participate in its plenaries, panel discussions and virtual networking opportunities. European Space Week is a not-to-be-missed event for anybody interested in current developments and future trends in the EU space ecosystem so don’t miss out - register now!

The current COVID-19 situation has not been stopping the organisation of the European Navigation Conference (ENC) now reaching out globally and taking place online on 23rd and 24th November 2020. The European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) is contributing to this important event to promote its services and to advance the evolutions that are under development, specifically in the frame of the High Accuracy Service (HAS) and the contribution to Authentication.

The European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) #MyGalileoDrone competition has kept the drone and GNSS community on their toes long enough, it is time to reveal the names of the most innovative projects that made it through the first selection.

The EU Space Programme is evolving and so are the needs and requirements of its user community. The 3rd edition of the User Consultation Platform (UCP) will be held on 1-2 December 2020 as part of the preparatory phase of the 2020 European Space Week. The Consultation is open to user communities, industries, service providers and R&D leveraging space for the creation of applications, businesses, and innovation.

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has just released its latest GNSS User Technology Report, providing a comprehensive analysis of latest GNSS trends and developments. With four Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) available and more than 100 satellites in operation broadcasting multiple frequencies, the GNSS industry is shifting towards the wide adoption of multifrequency receivers across market segments to meet the diverging user needs of emerging applications.

On 16 October 2020, Rodrigo da Costa took up his duties as Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), soon to become the EU Space Programme Agency. He was elected by the GSA Administrative Board on 15 September 2020 and met with the ITRE Committee of the European Parliament on 12 October 2020.