China-Europe Co-Operation Agreements for Navigation: SART and LRR Developments

The European Commission and the European Space Agency through the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU), have launched in China a number of developments related to Navigation Applications and Infrastructurs. The programmatic framework is part of a broad agreement between the GJU and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology through which China is providing an important contribution to the Galileo development. The type of activities included in the co-operation agreement cover system studies and navigation applications services plus the development of both ground and onboard equipment for Galileo. Eleven contracts have already been kicked off, others are subject of ongoing tender actions which will raise the first, overall contribution of China to Galileo to an amount of about 65 M€. The space related developments are currently involving the development of the Galileo Search and Rescue Transponder (SART) and the satellite Laser Retro Reflector (LRR). An overview of the ongoing activities is provided in this article with a more detailed reporting on the SART and LRR developments.