Negotiations on interoperability between the European Galileo and Russian Glonass satellite navigation systems are expected to restart soon, after a yearlong hiatus. The hope of talks follows an agreement on dialogue structures between the European Commission and Russia’s Federal Space Agency (FSA).

A trilateral steering board has been created for discussions between the EC, European Space Agency and the FSA. ESA already has working groups covering areas of co-operation under its framework agreement with the FSA, including satellite communications, global navigation and technology. These will include EC representatives and will report to the new steering board. A new working group on Earth observation will also be created.
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Alcatel Alenia Space has announced that it will demonstrate the first emergency service based on EGNOS, a precursor of Galileo, in Lisbon, Portugal. The integrated end-to-end Location-Based Solution (LBS), designed under the coordination of Alcatel Alenia Space, enables the Civil Security forces and Fire Brigades to locate emergency calls from mobile phones and efficiently guide the intervention team. Using EGNOS-enhanced accurate positioning integrated with the telecom network and the emergencycontrol centre application, the service improves the speed and efficiency of the rescue, increases the team safety and optimizes the resources needed for overall incident management.

This emergency management solution has been developed in the scope of the European Research and Development project SCORE (Service of Coordinated Operational Emergency & Rescue using EGNOS). As prime contractor of SCORE, Alcatel Alenia Space is leading a consortium of 8 European companies dedicated to establish solutions for emergency call positioning (E112) and rescue force guidance during accidents or natural disasters.

Launched in February 2004, SCORE is managed by the GJU (Galileo Joint Undertaking) and publicly funded under the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission, with partners coming from Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and
Spain.
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The second experimental satellite, Giove-B, for the European satellite navigation system Galileo will probably be postponed several months. Instead of being launched in April, the satellite called Giove-B will probably take off between September and November, a spokesperson from the European Space Agency ESA told.
www.heise.de