SES S.A. announced that it has signed, through its service company SES TechCom, a contract with BT to provide satellite communications services for the Galileo Data Dissemination Network (GDDN) to support the Galileo Operator Spaceopal.

The agreement includes deployment, maintenance and support of Satcom ground infrastructure at remote locations around the world, the provision of satellite capacity and the monitoring and control of the GDDN satellite network. BT is the communications service provider of GDDN, responsible for its design, deployment and operation, while Spaceopal is Galileo’s Operations contractor.

SES TechCom Managing Director Gerhard Bethscheider stated: “The selection of SES TechCom for this prestigious project illustrates the reputation which the Luxembourg Space industry has acquired since 2005, when (it) became a full member of the European Space Agency. We are delighted to work closely together with our partners BT and Spaceopal on the realisation of Europe’s most prestigious satellite navigation constellation.”

Galileo, managed by the European Space Agency on behalf of the European Union, is Europe's initiative for a global satellite navigation system. GDDN is an essential element of the Galileo communications infrastructure. It interconnects the two Galileo Control Centers in Italy and Germany to a network of sensor stations, uplink stations and telemetry, tracking and control stations distributed around the world. It also provides the connectivity to the Galileo satellite test and launch facilities, security monitoring centers, network management facilities and external entities.