On 16 and 19 September the European GNSS Agency (GSA), together with Orolia, CNES, ENAIRE, the Spanish Mission Control Centre (MCC), the Spanish Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) and the French MCC successfully conducted end-to-end tests of Galileo’s Return Link Service (RLS) with the airline companies Iberia and Air France. These tests consisted of remote aviation-beacon activation.

The Return Link Service Provider (RLSP), as its name suggests, is the system responsible for generating Galileo’s return messages. This system acts as an interface between the French Mission Control Centre (MCC), which forms part of the Cospas-Sarsat network, and the Galileo Ground Mission Segment (GMS). This service allows users in possession of a Galileo-compatible beacon to receive the confirmation message whenever this beacon is activated in any rescue operation. No other satellite-based rescue system is capable of sending this message; as such it is Galileo’s most valuable input to the Cospas-Sarsat program. The system can also send remote activation messages to the beacons themselves.

Under the aegis of the European Commission, GMV is leading the framework contract for supplying the RLSP infrastructure of Galileo’s Search and Rescue Service (SAR); this project includes design and development of the RLSP, its validation and installation in the SAR/Galileo Service Centre plus its maintenance and support for system integrating tests. Search and Rescue Service- SAR.

The tests simulated a real aircraft distress scenario: the Operational Control Center at Iberia confirmed the loss of information from an aircraft flying over the Atlantic. After following the standard procedures with ENAIRE’s Air Traffic Control and the Spanish Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) the decision was taken to activate the beacon remotely to locate the aircraft. At this moment the beacon was activated from the French Space Agency (Centre National d'Études Spatiales: CNES) through the Return Link Service Provider.

The tests involved remote activation and deactivation of the beacons installed on the Iberia and Air France aircraft, using the GMV-developed return link to do so. User interfaces were also successfully put through their paces, obtaining information on additional needs and also the airline’s opinion as final user of the service.

CNES was in charge of the test operations, while GMV was responsible for providing support, installing the man-machine interfaces (MMIs) in a server located on GMV’s site, making these interfaces available to external users, in this case CNES and the Spanish and French Mission Coordination Centres. 

The tests were a resounding success. The operational concept was assessed and validated for a new potential use of Galileo in order to come up with a quicker response in aircraft emergency situations. It is hard to overestimate the importance of this service; it allows satellite localization of an incommunicado aircraft and would also enable localization of any aircraft that has had an accident while flying over oceans or that has turned out to be difficult to find, such as the Air France flight from Sao Paulo that ditched in the Atlantic or even those aircraft that have proven impossible to find, such as the Malaysia Airlines flight that crashed into the ocean without leaving any trace.

GMV has once more proven its reliability as a company and Galileo partner, inputting its wealth of experience as a company and also the biggest team now working in the European sector.

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