Europe's Galileo sat-nav satellites are OFFLINE: EU is forced to rely on American GPS after system suffers a FOUR DAY outage
- EU's Galileo satellite navigation system has been down for four days
- Majority of satellites in the Galileo constellation have suffered a service outage
- Galileo system is an alternative to the US-made GPS system and is free to use
- European services have been relying on the US alternative since issues started
The EU's Galileo satellite navigation system has been knocked offline for four days following a ground-based technical incident.
Most of the satellites in the Galileo constellation have suffered a service outage since Friday as the official status of all its crafts as currently 'Not Usable'.
Two of the 26 are said to be 'testing' while two others have long been out of service due to unrelated issues.
It is believed the ability to locate and help people in distress situations is unaffected.
Experts are working to restore operations of the multibillion euro programme, the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA) said.
The system is provided for free and is used by private firms, government agencies, academics and the tech sector.
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The EU's Galileo satellite navigation system has been down for four days as a result of a technical incident on the ground. The majority of satellites in the Galileo constellation have suffered a service outage (stock)
Issues have persisted the duration of the weekend and it means satellites cannot currently give locations or times to smartphones or other devices.
The majority of popular handsets in use around Europe are reliant on Galileo - including all iPhones released since 2017.
It is still in its earl stages as a project and is therefore not trusted with vital systems, with crucial services using other means.
It operates independently of the US system as well as not relying on Russia's GLONASS or China's Beidou networks.
Galileo began testing in December 2016 as an alternative to the US-made Global Positioning System (GPS), designed to provide an exact location to commercial and government customers, with a full deployment expected in 2020.
Experts are working to restore operations of the multibillion euro programme, the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA) said on Sunday. The system is provided under both free and commercial ventures and is used by both private firms, government agencies, academics and the tech sector
The cause of the technical incident is identified and recovery actions are implemented to ensure that the nominal service is resumed as soon as possible while safeguarding quality of the services,' the GSA said.
In November, Britain gave up on efforts to gain access to the EU's Galileo satellite navigation system for defence and critical national infrastructure purposes, after being frozen out by Brussels because of Brexit.
It is unclear whether the UK will get back the £1.2 billion it sank into Galileo.
Instead, it is aiming to build its own Global Navigation Satellite System, at a cost estimated by independent experts at £3 billion to £5 billion.
WHAT IS THE GALILEO SATELLITE CONSTELLATION?
An artist's impression of one of the satellites in the Galileo constellation
Galileo is a global navigation satellite system created by the European Union which was brought online in 2016.
The project was built to provide a high-precision global positioning system for the use of European nations that was independent of the US' GPS and Russia's GLONASS systems.
The setup can provide horizontal and vertical position measurements to a precision of within 1 metre.
It also provides a better service for users in higher latitudes than alternative systems.
Galileo's low-precision services are free to use and open to everyone, while paying commercial customers can access the system's higher-precision capabilities.
The first test satellite for the project was launched in December 2005, while the first working satellite was put into orbit in October 2011.
The constellation is comprised of 26 satellites — two of which are being tested and 2 of which are non-functional. Another four are planned for launch by 2020, after which new satellites will be launched to replace older ones.
The whole project is estimated to have cost around €10 billion (£9 billion / $11.3 billion)
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