GIOVE-B succesfully launched

Giove-B launch was succesfull. The full report of the mission can be found on the ESA website.

The GIOVE-B satellite was lofted into a medium altitude orbit around the earth by a Soyuz/Fregat rocket departing from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by launch operator Starsem. Lift-off occurred at 04:16 local time on 27 April (00:16 Central European Summer Time). The Fregat upper stage performed a series of manoeuvres to reach a circular orbit at an altitude of about 23 200 km, inclined at 56 degrees to the Equator, before safely delivering the satellite into orbit some 3 hours and 45 minutes later. The two solar panels that generate electricity to power the spacecraft deployed correctly and were fully operational by 05:28 CEST.

We look forward now to the switch on of the payload, when finally we will have available a signal-in-space very close to the final Galileo signal to test.

GIOVE-B launch: another step for Galileo

Today we will have evidence that the Galileo programme is actually progressing. After stops, delays, doubts and concerns the day for the 2nd Galileo Satellite has come: GIOVE-B will be launched tonight.


Beginning at 23:35 CEST on Saturday night, ESA will be providing live video coverage of the final preparations, lift off and climb out of the Soyuz launcher from Baikonur via the GIOVE-B website.

The second test satellite hosts a new on-board clock and provide a signal matching the Galileo signal speciications; I am sure this will create many opportunities for research and new results, hopefully boosting again the interest towards Galileo.

Toulouse Space Show - day 4 -NavSAS leaves a sign

The ENC conference is finished, and we are back home after a busy week.

However this last day has been outstanding for the NavSAS group.

In fact, Riccardo Lesca won the best presentation award for his paper.

The technical committee gave 3 awards (1 per day) and Riccardo's presentation was on Wednesday, the most crowded day, with many sessions running in parallel both during the morning and the afternoon. Congratulations Riccardo !

Here is the video of the award ceremony

This success of Riccardo must be counted also as a success of the specializing Master on Navigation and Related Applications taken by Riccardo during the first edition.
Six former students of the Master were attending the ENC conference: Tung Hai Ta, currently getting a Ph.D with the NavSAS at Politecnico, Giovanni Vecchione, working for GMV, Andrea Samperi working for Sofiter as a consultant for Thales Alenia Space, Federico Giuntini, working for the VEGA group on the Giove-B system segment, and Soumaya Zariri, currently gettting a Ph.D from Montbeliard University. We can only be happy that our students are fully exploiting the knowledge acquired dring the Master for contributing to the development of GNSS !

Next year the ENC conference will be hosted in Naples, at the Parthenope University. Let's keep our finger crossed that Italy can offer a high quality conference as the one we attended this year.

Toulouse Space Show - day 3

Another day at the ENC conference is gone. This morning Massimiliano Spelat and Filippo Margary presented the GAL-PMI project, and in the afternoon it has been also the time for the poster session including the work of Andrea Tomatis, Paolo Mulassano and Diego Orgiazzi.

Finally in the late afternoon we had some spare time that we spend visting a bit of downtown Tolouse. We had dinner in the Capitol square and eventually after 3 day sMassimiliano (who is very picky about the food) ate something: the Tolouisene cassoulet, a complex casserole of white beans, lamb, pork, sausage, and poultry.

Toulouse Space Show - day 2

Today, it has been a long and hard day. The technical sessions started, and we had the chance to attend to several interesting presentations.

On the side of this, we had many chances to talk to friends and people and for sure several things will happen for the NavSAS in the future. It has been for sure a fruitful day.

But it was also the day of the NavSAS oral presentations. Riccardo had to face a so committed chairman that has been able to fit in the regular scheduling of the session also the alternate paper, still finishing earlier than expected. In order to do this he stopped all the presenters in a sharp way 5 minutes in advance with no warnings. So who wants to know how Riccardo presentation is going to end, will have to attend the PLANS conference in May... The presentation by Riccardo was fine even if "ended" at slide 15 out of 20.

Tung did an awesome presentation, impressing all the audience. Relaxed, precise, professional, ready to answer the questions. Great job, fully compliant with the NavSAS high standards !

Then we attended the Gala dinner at the Space City, a park hosting a full model of the Ariane launcher, of the MIR station, and several multimedia amusement for the vistors.


Let say that the "dinner" left us still hungry..... for more science tomorrow . There is for sure still some SPACE !!

Blogging from Toulouse Space Show

Today we want to start using this site as an actual Blog, posting our feelings, comments and news from the ENC-GNSS conference and the Toulouse Space Show.

The NavSas team attending the conference is kind of relevant: Letizia Lo Presti, Riccardo Lesca, Davide Margaria, Ta Tung and myself from Politecnico, Massimiliano Spelat from TorinoWireless, and Luigi Bragagnini from the Consortium Torino Time. There are also several NavSAS friends as Gianluca Boiero from Telecom Italia, Francesco Longo from ASI, Marracci from Intecs and others.

Today some of us attended the GNSS Signal Workshop, where several interesting presentations suggested several ideas for future research works.

Tung attended a couple of interesting tutorials.

Then all together we attended the opening session, with a nice speech from Vidal Ashkenazy, brilliant, funny and smart as usual.

The official opening included several welcome speeches by local politicians and by the ministry of research and higher education. The presence of press and TV has been really impressive due to the importance given to the event; France is really determined to maintain a prominent role in Space development, and keeps investing in its outstanding Toulouse space district.

The funny part of the opening has been the breaks between the speeches, thanks to 2 singers, performing songs on space subjects (watch the video).

Now it’s time for the welcome cocktail , some dinner and then time to finalize the presentations for tomorrow when the technical sessions will start.

News and rumors from the ENC:

- we officially know now that the next year the ENC will be at the Pathenope University in Naples from the 3rd to the 6th of May 2009. Many people met at the conference and, I have to say, myself too have some concerns about the place (not a conference center) and dates (3rd May is a Sunday !) . We will see what is going to be presented during the last day, even if the presentation by the Italian Institute of Navigation is reported in the program as TBC.

NAV-COM convergence and customer needs

One day all our mobile phones and vehicles will be equipped with a GNSS receiver coupled with communication capabilities. Exploiting this convergence new Value-Added Services will be possible both in the field of entertainment (location-based contents, games, chats, geotagging and sharing,…) and in the field of “utility” (traffic info, tracking for personal safety, location-based charging,…). In the end, the mass market growth will be driven by those services that will be able to improve the way we experience the world around us supporting our day to day and social activities. What’s your “need”?

NAV-COM convergence pave the way for Galileo adoption

The convergence of positioning and communication capabilities seems to be a key element for the growth of Navigation services and will help bring Galileo into the market in later years.
The rising availability of connected portable navigation devices (PNDs like TomTom) and AGPS-enabled mobile phones (e.g. Nokia 6110, N95) is a fact of the market. Which will be the winner? Do you prefer using your mobile phone as a Navigator, or do you prefer to be connected when you are navigating with your PND?