Kepler – Satellite Navigation System Description and Validation

Kurzfassung

Galileo launched its initial services on December 15th, 2016 with 11 active satellites. Today, there are 26 satellites in orbit of which 17 satellites are integrated in the service provisioning. The signal performance of the satellites is outstanding and the signal in-space accuracy already reaches levels similar to GPS. Galileo has ultimately developed into a success. Its earliest satellites were launched on October 21st, 2011 and have thus passed half of their lifetime. A number of additional satellites have been ordered and plans are currently made for further developing the European Global Navigation Satellite System (EGNSS) program. Kepler is one proposal, and shall be presented in this paper, in particular with respect to first ideas about its validation.