Space, Telespazio expands Galileo’s perimeter at Fucino

Despite its 60 years of age, Telespazio looks to the future with ‘young eyes’ and extends the perimeter of the Galileo Control Center (Gcc), the second center in Europe that manages the satellite constellation and the mission of the navigation system program, to Fucino and European satellite tracking. The joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%) today cut the ribbon of a new building at the Fucino Space Center, thus expanding the Center in Italy already operational since 2010. The enlargement of the Italian Galileo Center – l The other is based in Munich – was determined by the evolution of the program which expanded the development of the activities of the Fucino Control Center, making it necessary to build new control rooms and new operational areas. The new configuration already operational of the Italian GCC can now have 30 control rooms and 40 equipment rooms. At full capacity, the activities will be operated by about 200 technicians and the new infrastructure, built in 12 months by Telespazio, is spread over an area of ​​approximately 1400 square meters, bringing the Galileo Control Center to occupy a total area of ​​6000 square meters. To do the honors at the ceremony at Fucino was the Coordinator of Space Activities of Leonardo and CEO of Telespazio, Luigi Pasquali, who welcomed the president of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsilio, the executive director of the European Union Agency for the Space Program (Euspa), Rodrigo da Costa, and the CEO of Spaceopal, Marco Folino. The senior leader of Italian politics Gianni Letta, born in Avezzano and Undersecretary of State to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in the governments chaired by Silvio Berlusconi, also took part in the cutting of the ribbon. The Italian GCC operates in parallel with the Control Center built in Germany by DLR-Gfr, a company of the German Space Agency, in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich. Fucino manages the satellite constellation and the mission of the Galileo program and the Italian Center is also responsible for the security operations of the entire system, taking care of the activities necessary to guarantee the integrity, confidentiality and authenticity of the navigation signal and positioning. Both centers are managed by Spaceopal, the joint venture of Telespazio and Dlr / Gfr), on behalf of Euspa which is the operational arm of the EU and the European Union Agency for the space program born at the beginning of 2021. Spaceopal, again on behalf of Euspa, he is responsible for the operations, the integrated logistics of the entire Galileo system, the management of the global communication network, the IT security of the system and, from the next launch of Galileo satellites – scheduled in the coming weeks – will also manage Leop (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) operations for putting Galileo satellites into orbit. In this context, the Italian space giant Leonardo is a key partner of Galileo by providing a decisive contribution to the terrestrial and space segments of the program, through the joint ventures Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, and by creating the hydrogen atomic clocks for all the satellites of first and second generation. Galileo is the satellite navigation system of the European Union, fully funded and owned by the EU itself, and the result of a European partnership. Galileo is managed by the European Commission, with Euspa as responsible for managing the exploitation of the service, while the European Space Agency (ESA) operates as the system design authority. Galileo is the largest infrastructure initiative in the EU and aims to expand the strategic autonomy and sovereignty of the citizens of the European Union and the Member States. The Galileo system consists of a space segment, currently composed of 26 satellites – to which two more satellites are being added – and a ground infrastructure consisting of the two Control Centers of Fucino built and managed by Telespazio and Oberpfaffenhofen (Munich of Bavaria) created by DLR Gfr, a company of the German space agency DLR, by a Service Center in Madrid and by a global communication network managed by Telespazio and finally by a series of remote sites distributed all over the world. Italy has a leading role since the beginning of the program, both through the Italian Space Agency and through the involvement of the national industry and in particular the Leonardo Group. (by Andreana d’Aquino)