SSTL included the SGR-GEO receiver on the GIOVE-A satellite with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the ARTES 4 program, aiming to prove that a receiver could achieve a position fix from a higher orbit. Adapted from SSTL’s SGR range of receivers, the SGR-GEO incorporates a high-gain antenna and a precise oven-controlled clock, allowing weak signal reception from special algorithms and a near constant position fix throughout orbit provided by an orbit estimator.

“We’re getting higher signal strengths than anticipated and also acquiring side lobes from the GPS transmit antennas, which improve the availability of the useable signals for navigation,” SSTL Principal GNSS Engineer Martin Unwin said in statement. “With the success of the SGR-GEO receiver, GPS, in combination with Galileo and Glonass, could soon be helping navigate spacecraft much further away from Earth.”

SSTL engineers will continue operations, testing, tuning and improving the receiver software onboard GIOVE-A to attain the best possible performance.