COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL State of progress of the Galileo programme

The Galileo satellite navigation programme is the first major programme to bring the European Union and the European Space Agency together. It aims to develop cutting-edge technology to enable a user equipped with a receiver to receive signals from several satellites and thus determine his exact position in time and space anywhere at any given moment. Galileo is based on a constellation of 30 satellites placed in a medium earth orbit (at an altitude of approximately 24 000 km) continuously covering the entire surface of the earth. The final component is the ground stations which manage the system.