Author: Vision & Global Trends – 10/09/2019
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is hosting a special event on September 10 to mark the 15th anniversary of its creation.
The Agency was set up as the European GNSS Supervisory Authority in 2004 to oversee the development of the European space programmes EGNOS and Galileo.
GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides welcomed special guests to the GSA’s Prague headquarters to celebrate the event, including European Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Czech Transport Minister Vladimir Kremlik, French Space Agency (CNES) President and GSA Administrative Board Chair Jean-Yves Le Gall and European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jan Woerner, in addition to other EGNOS and Galileo stakeholders.
“Over the last 15 years, the GSA has become one of the key players in building Europe’s independent capacity in satellite navigation” said Commissioner Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
While participating in the celebrations, the Commissioner also presided over another historic milestone for both the Galileo programme and the GSA –the countdown to the 1 billionth Galileo-enabled smartphone sold. GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said: “It is an honour and a great pleasure to celebrate this important milestone with representatives from all our stakeholders-the Commission, users, industry and other institutional bodies. Their presence here clearly shows that the GSA is delivering on its mission–linking space to user needs.”
“15 years ago, no one imagined how far the GSA and the EU satellite navigation systems EGNOS and Galileo would go. Now,no one can imagine Europe without Galileo and EGNOS, or Galileo and EGNOS without Europe. The GSA has been at the heart of these two programmes, accelerating progress in service provision, market uptake and guaranteeing operation security over the past 15years. All that has been accomplished has been made possible thanks to the unique blend of expertise, dedication and commitment of the GSA’s staff” des Dorides said.
Looking to the future
Galileo will soon reach its Full Operational Capability, a phase that will require new governance to comply with benchmarked standards for the management of operational satellite services. It was with this in mind that the European Parliament and the Council agreed on a new EU Space Programme Regulation establishing the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) as the successor of the GSA.
“In the new governance the Commission will continue to be responsible for managing the overall programme. The GSA, to be renamed the ‘EU Agency for the Space Programme’, will increasingly support the exploitation and market uptake of EU space activities and play an increased role in ensuring the security of all programme components. The intergovernmental European Space Agency (ESA), given its expertise, will remain a major partner in the technical implementation of the EU space programme” des Dorides said.
About the European GNSS Agency (GSA) – As an official European Union Regulatory Agency, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) manages public interests related to European GNSS programmes. The GSA’s mission is to support European Union objectives and achieve the highest return on European GNSS investment, in terms of benefits to users and economic growth and competitiveness.