The Galileo Eccentric Satellite Surprise - Bert Hubert's writings
a day ago
- Galileo eccentric satellites E14 and E18 unexpectedly started transmitting production signals on November 30, 2020, causing receiver issues due to non-compliant data.
- These satellites were launched in 2014 into a bad orbit but were saved and moved to eccentric orbits, requiring precise relativistic corrections and special mathematics for ephemeris calculations.
- The almanac cannot encode E14 and E18's orbits, potentially confusing receivers, and the lack of advance notice or proper NAGU announcements drew criticism.
- The EU GNSS Agency later acknowledged communication failures, ceased production signals from the eccentric satellites on February 18, 2021, and improvements were requested.