European Satellite Navigation Industries, formerly called Galileo Industries until legal action prompted a name change, was a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

of the companies

Alcatel Alenia Space Thales Alenia Space () is a Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer. A joint venture between the French technology corporation Thales Group (67%) and Italian defense conglomerate Leonardo (33%), the company is the largest satellite manufacture ...

and

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded him ...

(France),

Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian Multinational corporation, multinational company specialising in Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace, arms industry, defence and Information security, securi ...

(Italy),

EADS Astrium Astrium was an aerospace manufacturer subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) that provided civil and military space systems and services from 2006 to 2013. In 2012, Astrium had a turnover of €5.8 billion and 18 ...

(UK and Germany) and Galileo Sistemas y Servicios (a consortium of seven Spanish companies). The company was the primary construction company for the

Galileo positioning system Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that went live in 2016, created by the European Union through the European Space Agency (ESA), operated by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), headquartered in Pr ...

, tasked with developing and building the satellites and components for the

ground segment A ground segment consists of all the ground-based elements of a space system used by operators and support personnel, as opposed to the space segment and user segment. The ground segment enables management of a spacecraft, and distribution of p ...

infrastructure of this satellite navigation system. The partner firms committed to not construct competing products for Galileo. However, some competition came from

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space. The company began ou ...

, which successfully built and launched the first

GIOVE-A GIOVE (; ), or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element, is the name for two satellites built for the European Space Agency (ESA) to test technology in orbit for the Galileo positioning system. The name was chosen as a tribute to Galileo Galilei, who ...

testbed satellite, and which was then awarded a contract for a followon GIOVE-A2 satellite while the joint venture's GIOVE-B satellite remained on the ground awaiting launch. Since that time, the GIOVE-B satellite successfully launched, although after the Galileo project had been abandoned by European Satellite Navigation Industries and taken up by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. The company was headquartered at

Ottobrunn Ottobrunn () is a municipality southeast of Munich, Bavaria, Germany, founded in 1955. Ottobrunn consists of mainly semi-detached and detached houses, as well as extensive garden areas. Ottobrunn is also the German Headquarters of Airbus Defense ...

near Munich, with an office in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. The company employed around two hundred people, many working directly for their parent corporations.

Update

This private sector group of eight companies abandoned Galileo in 2007. Subsequently, EU has taken over the construction of Galileo positioning system.Galileo navigation satellite provider to be dismantled
Rob Coppinger, Flight International, 30 November 2007. On 21 December 2007

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

terminated the Galileo contract with the European Satellite Navigation Industries.

References

External links

GIOVE Mission Processing Centre website
Aerospace companies of Europe Spacecraft manufacturers Galileo (satellite navigation) Aerospace engineering organizations Companies established in 2000

Update

Further reading

References

External links