The ASI’s New National GNSS Frame Network has been completed

22 November 2021

Construction of the New National GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Frame Network of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) has been completed. The new network was built by e-GEOS and is set to provide up-to-date, high-precision geodetic information through the signals generated by the satellite navigation systems.

This infrastructure is of vital importance in providing up-to-date, accurate geodetic information for the scientific community and professional and entrepreneurial operators.

Through the use of latest-generation technologies, 46 stations distributed evenly across the Italian peninsula will enable the acquisition of signals generated by all the global satellite navigation systems, such as the US GPS, the Russian GLONASS, the Chinese Beidou and, above all, Europe’s Galileo.

ASI’s GNSS network, which was designed and developed to provide indispensable support for the global geodetic networks (such as the International GNSS Service IGS and the EUropean REference Frame EUREF), will produce data for the management of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF).

What’s more, it will make a variety of products and services possible: from determining the orbits of GNSS satellites (with an accuracy to the nearest centimetre) to time-synchronising them (better than one nanosecond), useful both for applications on-site as well as to support satellites equipped with GNSS receivers.

The new network will enable ASI and e-GEOS to intensify and fine-tune the joint scientific and operational development under way for the last 25 years at the ASI Space Centre in Matera in the field of meteorology, as well as the study of climate change and space weather.

Specifically, the network will enable the provision to the national supply chain - from research centres to SMEs, universities and major corporations - of products and services that are useful for developing innovative, high-precision positioning applications, which can be implemented in a wide variety of sectors: from professional applications to those in the field of precision farming.

In order to contribute to scientific activities, some stations in the new GNSS network have been installed in particularly significant locations where purpose-designed structures are already present.

All the data acquired by the “New National GNSS Frame Network” will be received, processed and stored at ASI Space Centre in Matera and provided to all interested users.

Other News & Stories

08.09.2025
The Lario Space Centre hosts the third edition of LarioSpace

Astronauts, executives and space industry experts will gather on September 11–12 for LarioSpace 2025, an international event on innovation and technologies in the New Space Economy, hosted at Telespazio’s Lario Space Centre on Lake Como.

07.08.2025
Towards the Digital Twin of Italian Soil

Leonardo, through e-GEOS, a company owned by the Italian Space Agency (20%) and Telespazio (80%), will support the Department for Sustainable Development (DiSS) of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) in the development of a Digital Twin of the Italian territory. The initiative falls under PNRR investment M2C4 I.1.1, which focuses on the development of an advanced monitoring and forecasting system. This high-resolution digital model of the terrain, built using airborne laser surveys (LiDAR) and aerogravimetric data, will serve as a strategic asset for understanding the morphology of the land and will lay the foundation for future Digital Twins capable of simulating and further studying its behaviour.

31.07.2025
U-ELCOME: Hospital Drugs Delivered by Drones Take Off in Abruzzo

The operational phase of the drone-based hospital drug delivery service officially launched today in Abruzzo. The initiative is part of the European U-ELCOME project (U-space European COMmon dEpLoyment), co-funded by the Horizon programme, and aims to foster the widespread adoption of U-space services in European airspace, enabling safe and coordinated operations alongside traditional aircraft.

24.07.2025
Telespazio successfully completes the LEOP of EUMETSAT’s MTG-S1 weather satellite

Telespazio has successfully completed the LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) operations for the MTG-S1 weather satellite of EUMETSAT, launched on July 1st from Cape Canaveral.

08.09.2025
The Lario Space Centre hosts the third edition of LarioSpace

Astronauts, executives and space industry experts will gather on September 11–12 for LarioSpace 2025, an international event on innovation and technologies in the New Space Economy, hosted at Telespazio’s Lario Space Centre on Lake Como.

07.08.2025
Towards the Digital Twin of Italian Soil

Leonardo, through e-GEOS, a company owned by the Italian Space Agency (20%) and Telespazio (80%), will support the Department for Sustainable Development (DiSS) of the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) in the development of a Digital Twin of the Italian territory. The initiative falls under PNRR investment M2C4 I.1.1, which focuses on the development of an advanced monitoring and forecasting system. This high-resolution digital model of the terrain, built using airborne laser surveys (LiDAR) and aerogravimetric data, will serve as a strategic asset for understanding the morphology of the land and will lay the foundation for future Digital Twins capable of simulating and further studying its behaviour.

31.07.2025
U-ELCOME: Hospital Drugs Delivered by Drones Take Off in Abruzzo

The operational phase of the drone-based hospital drug delivery service officially launched today in Abruzzo. The initiative is part of the European U-ELCOME project (U-space European COMmon dEpLoyment), co-funded by the Horizon programme, and aims to foster the widespread adoption of U-space services in European airspace, enabling safe and coordinated operations alongside traditional aircraft.

24.07.2025
Telespazio successfully completes the LEOP of EUMETSAT’s MTG-S1 weather satellite

Telespazio has successfully completed the LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) operations for the MTG-S1 weather satellite of EUMETSAT, launched on July 1st from Cape Canaveral.