The future European GPS Galileo moves to Transinne

21/03/2016

The European Commission has appointed the site of Transinne, located in the province of Luxembourg, to install the terrestrial platform of the European satellite navigation system Galileo, the future European GPS.

As a reminder, Galileo is the European initiative to develop a global navigation satellite system under civilian control. Once deployed, the system will consist of 30 satellites and associated ground infrastructure, that is to say 12 main sites located in Europe ensuring specific tasks, and 16 sites known as "remote", distributed around the globe for control and communication with the satellites they are able to achieve according to their position.

The application for the site of Transinne has been defended for more than two years by the Walloon Minister of Economy Jean-Claude Marcourt and by the intercommunal group Idelux. The effort made by the Walloon expertise in space and the involvement of regional and federal actors have now borne fruit : Transinne and the business park Galaxia, new special pole where are located five companies of four different nationalities, will host the terrestrial infrastructures of the Galileo system. This will be managed by the European Space Agency (ESA), partly under civilian and military control. A new building will be built with an investment of 7 million euros financed by the Walloon Region.

This facility, in addition to generating numerous direct and indirect jobs, will also strengthen the Walloon companies already active in the field of satellites and onboard equipment. Some are already among the contractors of the Ariane programme (2015), as Thales, Samtech, Amos, Spacebel or Les Ateliers de la Meuse.

The IT sector Walloon will also feed on computer applications that have their sources of information in the data collected by satellites launched under the Galileo program. The center's activities are planned for a period of 20 years.