26 October 2026 11:30
Telespazio, a Leonardo company, and the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) have signed an agreement to support the expansion of the Galileo Control Centre (GCC-I) at the Fucino Space Centre in Abruzzo (Italy). Through this agreement, EUSPA, on behalf of the European Commission, will contribute to the planned expansion of the GCC-I. The aim of the expansion is to increase GCC-I's capabilities so that it can support the delivery of Galileo Services of the second-generation Galileo European satellite navigation and positioning system, which is currently under development.
Two new buildings will be constructed on the site of the existing Galileo Control Centre, a 6,000 sqm facility built in 2010 and expanded in 2021, which has (prior to the extension now being implemented) 30 control rooms and 40 equipment rooms. They will house equipment rooms and control rooms up to the highest levels of security classification.
Telespazio will be responsible for the entire project, from design through to final verification and testing, including the civil engineering work. Ownership of the whole site infrastructure will ultimately pass to the Italian authorities.
Telespazio CEO Gabriele Pieralli said: "We are proud that, as Galileo evolves into its second generation, we have once again been entrusted with developing the Fucino Control Centre, which, together with its German counterpart, is the beating heart of the ground segment. This expansion will strengthen the reliability and security of the system, which serves hundreds of millions of European citizens and a user community that continues to grow around the world. It is a success that confirms Telespazio's Fucino Space Centre, part of the Leonardo Group, as an essential hub for Europe's major space programmes."
The GCC in Fucino operates in parallel with the Control Centre managed by DLR-GfR, a company of the German space agency, at Oberpfaffenhofen (Munich), and together manage the satellite constellation and the navigation signals generation and dissemination of the Galileo Programme. The Italian Center is also responsible for central security facility operations in support to the GSMCs (Galileo Security Monitoring Centers) and carries out the operations of Ground Mission Segment and the monitor and control of the GDDN (Galileo Data Dissemination Network).
Both centres are run by Spaceopal (a joint venture owned equally by Telespazio and DLR/GfR). Spaceopal is the prime contractor for the operational services of Galileo, the satellite navigation program of the European Union, and is the world’s largest navigation satellite service operator. Spaceopal is responsible for operations, integrated logistics, maintenance, management of the global communications network, security operations and LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) operations after the separation from the launcher.
Leonardo, together with its joint ventures Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, is a key partner in Galileo. It makes a decisive contribution to both the ground and space segments of the programme and builds the hydrogen atomic clocks for all first- and second-generation satellites.