Antonio Tajani, European Commission Vice-President in charge of Transport, has announced the award of three of the six contracts for the procurement of Galileo’s initial operational capability.

The European Commission has selected the consortium led by OHB-System AG (Germany) and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL, UK) for building and testing 14 satellites for the Galileo satellite navigation system, a programme funded by the European Union. This selection is a major milestone for the European Commission, assisted by the European Space Agency, which initiated the tendering process for these satellites in September 2008.

Berry Smutny, CEO of OHB-System AG, stated upon learning of the decision “We are very pleased and honoured with the Commission’s decision. Galileo is one of the EU’s most important infrastructure programmes entering now the decisive implementation phase.“

Matt Perkins SSTL’s Group CEO added “Through the GIOVE programme, (first test satellite of Galileo constellation, n.d.r.) SSTL has demonstrated that it has the ability to play a major role in Galileo. We are very pleased that the OHB-SSTL team has been selected for part of the full operational system”.

As a result of this decision, OHB-System will be assuming the role of prime contractor for the fabrication of the 14 satellites, including full responsibility for developing the satellite platform and overall integration of the satellites. SSTL will build and integrate the navigation payloads and support OHB with the final integration, using its successful experience from GIOVE-A , the first Galileo satellite, launched in 2005. The 14 satellites will be assembled in Bremen.

OHB-System successfully built and launched the German SAR-Lupe radar reconnaissance system, a constellation of five satellites, for surveillance and security.

Sources: SSTL, OHB, ESA