This heatmap shows estimated positioning accuracy based on current Galileo satellite geometry. Green areas have excellent satellite coverage with strong multi-angle geometry (low PDOP). Red areas have fewer visible satellites or poor geometry, resulting in weaker accuracy. The map updates as satellites move through their 14-hour medium Earth orbits.
Acquiring satellite geometry...
Excellent (PDOP < 2)
Good (2–4)
Moderate (4–6)
Poor (> 6)
Loading accuracy data…
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Your Galileo PDOP · — satellites visible
Your Galileo Sky View
Plane APlane BPlane C
📍
Your Location
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Galileo vs GPS vs GLONASS vs BeiDou — Live
Four global navigation satellite systems operate simultaneously. This comparison shows live satellite counts visible from your location, along with key architectural differences. Most modern receivers use all four systems together for the best possible accuracy.
🇪🇺 Galileo
—
visible from you
23,222 km · 56°
🇺🇸 GPS
—
visible from you
20,180 km · 55°
🇷🇺 GLONASS
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visible from you
19,130 km · 64.8°
🇨🇳 BeiDou
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visible from you
21,528 km · 55°
Set your location above to see live visibility counts
Metric
Galileo
GPS
GLONASS
BeiDou
Operator
EUSPA (EU)
USSF (US)
Roscosmos (RU)
CNSA (CN)
Control
Civilian
Military
Military
Military
Satellites
~30
31+
~24
44+
Planes
3
6
3
3 MEO + GEO/IGSO
Altitude
23,222 km
20,180 km
19,130 km
21,528 km
Inclination
56°
55°
64.8°
55°
Period
~14 h 4 min
~11 h 58 min
~11 h 16 min
~12 h 53 min
Free accuracy
< 1 m
~3–5 m
~3–7 m
~3.6 m
Best accuracy
< 20 cm (HAS)
~30 cm (L5)
~1 m
~1 m
SAR service
✓ + Return Link
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✓ (COSPAS)
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🕐
Orbital Plane Clock
Imagine looking at Earth from above with all three orbital planes visible at once. Each coloured arm represents one of Galileo's three orbital planes, separated by 120° in RAAN. The wide spacing and slow ~14-hour orbital period create a distinctive three-spoke pattern — very different from GPS's six-plane design or OneWeb's twelve polar planes.
Walker 27/3/1 Constellation
Galileo uses a Walker delta constellation pattern — satellites are evenly distributed across three planes for optimal global coverage. Each plane is offset by 120° in RAAN and 40° in mean anomaly.
Active planes:3
Sats per plane:~10
Plane spacing:120° RAAN
Orbital period:~14 h 4 min
Ground track repeat:10 days (17 orbits)
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The Wrong Orbit — Galileo 5 & 6
When Europe's Satellites Ended Up in the Wrong Place
On 22 August 2014, a Soyuz-ST-B rocket launched Galileo satellites GSAT-0201 and GSAT-0202 from Kourou. A frozen fuel line in the Fregat upper stage caused it to misfire, injecting both satellites into highly elliptical orbits instead of the planned circular orbit at 23,222 km. What followed was one of the most remarkable orbital rescue operations in space history.
22 Aug 2014
Launch failure — elliptical orbit
Nov 2014
Orbit correction manoeuvres begin
Mar 2015
Orbits raised and circularised
Dec 2015
Declared usable for navigation
Using the satellites' own propulsion, ESA raised the perigee from 13,700 km to 17,340 km over a series of burns — reducing eccentricity from 0.23 to 0.16. Although still in non-standard orbits, both satellites now contribute to navigation, and their unusual paths have proved valuable for testing general relativity predictions about time dilation in varying gravitational fields.
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Galileo Signal Services
Galileo offers multiple signal services at different accuracy and security levels — from free open positioning for smartphones to encrypted government-only signals. This layered approach is unique among GNSS systems.
FREE
Open Service (OS)
Free-to-use positioning and timing for consumer devices. Available globally with no subscription. Interoperable with GPS L1/L5.
Accuracy< 1 m horizontal
FrequenciesE1, E5a, E5b
AccessOpen, worldwide
FREE (since Jan 2023)
High Accuracy Service (HAS)
Sub-20 cm positioning via precise corrections broadcast directly from the satellites — no internet connection required. A global first for free precision positioning.
Accuracy< 20 cm (converged)
FrequenciesE6-B (data), E1/E5
AccessFree, compatible receiver required
GOVERNMENT
Public Regulated Service (PRS)
Encrypted, jam-resistant signal for EU government-authorised users. Provides robust positioning in hostile environments where open signals may be denied or spoofed.
Accuracy~1 m (encrypted)
FrequenciesE1-A, E6-A
AccessEU Member State authorisation
EMERGENCY
Search & Rescue (SAR/RLS)
Every Galileo satellite carries MEOSAR transponders to detect distress beacons. Unique Return Link Service confirms to the person in distress that help is on the way.
Detection time< 10 minutes
Location accuracy< 5 km (beacon), < 100 m (Galileo)
Return Link✓ Galileo-only feature
🆘
Search & Rescue Coverage
Every Galileo satellite carries a COSPAS-SARSAT MEOSAR transponder. When a distress beacon activates anywhere on Earth, Galileo satellites detect the signal and relay it to ground stations within minutes. The constellation's MEO altitude and global coverage mean multiple satellites can detect a single beacon simultaneously, enabling rapid triangulation.
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SAR-enabled satellites
< 10 min
Typical detection time
Global
Coverage area
🔔 Return Link Service — Only on Galileo
Galileo is the only GNSS system that can send a confirmation message back to the distress beacon, letting the person in distress know their signal has been received and rescue is underway. This two-way communication — a world first — can be critical for survival in remote environments where waiting uncertainty compounds the emergency. Compatible beacons with Return Link capability are available from manufacturers like ACR, Ocean Signal, and McMurdo.
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Constellation Growth
From the GIOVE test satellites in 2005 through the Soyuz launch failure, Full Operational Capability, and ongoing second-generation replenishment — the Galileo constellation's two-decade journey.
● Live point — current operational count, updated from Orbital Radar's constellation feed.
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Galileo Satellite Directory
All Galileo satellites currently in orbit or decommissioned. Click any satellite on the live map above — or any NORAD ID below — for full orbital details on the Orbital Radar satellite directory.
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Does My Phone Use Galileo?
Most smartphones manufactured after 2017 support Galileo. Enter your phone model to check — or browse the list below.
✓ Galileo supported: All iPhones from iPhone 8 onwards · All Samsung Galaxy S8 onwards · All Google Pixel devices · Huawei P10 onwards · OnePlus 5 onwards · Xiaomi Mi 6 onwards · Most 2018+ mid-range Android devices with Broadcom BCM47755 or Qualcomm SDX55+ chips.
✗ Not supported: iPhone 7 and older · Samsung Galaxy S7 and older · Most budget phones before 2018 · Older devices with single-frequency GPS-only chipsets.
Orbital Plane Breakdown
Galileo's ~30 satellites are distributed across 3 orbital planes, each separated by 120° in RAAN. Every plane contains approximately 10 operational satellites plus spares.
Satellite counts are live from Orbital Radar's TLE database. Plane assignments computed from orbital elements. See Types of Orbits for more on Walker constellations.
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Constellation Status
Target constellation30 satellites (FOC)
Operational now—
Planes fully populated—
Generation 2 ordered12 satellites (Airbus/Thales)
Status—
⏱️
Galileo System Time (GST)
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GST (UTC + leap)
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GST Week Number
—
Time of Week (s)
18
Leap Seconds vs UTC
Galileo System Time began at midnight 22 August 1999 and is steered to within a few nanoseconds of UTC. Like GPS time, GST carries no leap seconds — it is currently 18 seconds ahead of UTC. The GST-to-GPS time offset (GGTO) is broadcast so receivers can combine both systems seamlessly.
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Next Galileo Launch
Upcoming
Galileo Second Generation (G2)
First G2 satellites · Ariane 6 · Guiana Space Centre
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Days
—
Hours
—
Minutes
—
Seconds
Galileo Second Generation (G2) introduces fully digital navigation payloads, electric propulsion, inter-satellite links, and reconfigurable antennas. Twelve G2 satellites have been ordered from Airbus and Thales Alenia Space to begin replenishing and upgrading the constellation. Countdown updates automatically from the Orbital Radar launch schedule.
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GPS vs Galileo — Head to Head
The two most widely used navigation systems in the world. Most modern phones use both at once — but they differ in orbit, governance, signals, and accuracy. Here's how they compare directly.
📡 GPS
System
🇪🇺 Galileo
United States (Space Force)
Operator
European Union (EUSPA) — civilian
~20,180 km
Altitude
23,222 km
31+ in 6 planes · 55°
Constellation
~30 in 3 planes · 56°
~3–5 m (free) · <1 m dual-freq
Open accuracy
~1 m free · <20 cm via HAS
L1, L2, L5
Civil signals
E1, E5a, E5b, E6
M-Code (military)
Restricted service
PRS (Public Regulated Service)
Via separate systems (SARSAT)
Search & Rescue
Built-in + unique Return Link
1978 (FOC 1995)
First launch
2011 (FOC 2016)
Bottom line: they are complementary, not rivals. Using GPS + Galileo together roughly doubles the number of visible satellites, improving geometry (PDOP) and accuracy — especially in cities. Track the US system on the GPS satellite tracker.
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EGNOS — Europe's Accuracy Booster
The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is Europe's Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS). It improves GPS and Galileo accuracy to around 1 metre across Europe by broadcasting real-time correction and integrity data from three geostationary satellites — free to any SBAS-capable receiver. EGNOS is essential for safety-of-life applications like aviation precision approaches.
EGNOS service area · 3 GEO relay satellites · Source: EUSPA service definition
~1 m
Horizontal accuracy
3
GEO relay satellites
Free
No subscription
EGNOS is the European equivalent of the US WAAS system. Other regional SBAS include MSAS (Japan), GAGAN (India), and SouthPAN (Australia/NZ). The next version, EGNOS V3, will augment Galileo signals directly and add a dual-frequency, multi-constellation service.
🛡️
GNSS Jamming & Spoofing — A Growing Threat
Galileo signals, like all GNSS, arrive at the receiver weaker than a light bulb seen from 20,000 km — making them vulnerable to jamming (overpowering with noise) and spoofing (broadcasting fake signals). Interference has surged across Europe, especially near conflict zones in the east and the Mediterranean. Galileo's authenticated OSNMA signal is a key defence.
Known GNSS interference hotspots · Source: public reports & aviation advisories
-157 dBW
Galileo signal at receiver
$30
Cost of basic jammer
OSNMA
Anti-spoofing authentication
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Jamming
Brute-force radio noise drowns out the satellite signal. Low-cost devices can deny GNSS across several kilometres — common near conflict zones, ports, and along some truck routes.
👻
Spoofing
Fake signals trick receivers into computing the wrong position or time. Reported across the Eastern Mediterranean, Baltic, and Black Sea, affecting aviation and shipping.
🔒
OSNMA Defence
Galileo's Open Service Navigation Message Authentication cryptographically signs the navigation message, letting receivers detect spoofed signals — a capability standard GPS civil signals lack.
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How Your Phone Actually Finds You
Your phone doesn't rely on Galileo or GPS alone. Modern smartphones fuse several positioning sources — each with different accuracy, speed, and power use — then blend them with a Kalman filter for the best possible fix.
🛰️
GNSS Satellites (Galileo + GPS + more)
1–5 m accuracy
Primary outdoor positioning. Using Galileo and GPS together typically gives the receiver 14+ visible satellites, improving accuracy and fix speed. Dual-frequency (E5/L5) phones reach sub-metre accuracy.
Power: High · Indoor: Poor · Latency: 2–30s
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Wi-Fi Positioning
15–40 m accuracy
Matches visible Wi-Fi networks against a crowd-sourced database of known access-point locations. Works indoors where satellite signals can't reach.
Power: Low · Indoor: Good · Latency: 1–3s
🗼
Cell Tower Triangulation
100–1000 m accuracy
Estimates position from signal strength to nearby cell towers — coarse but fast, used as an initial estimate while the GNSS receiver acquires satellites.
Power: Minimal · Indoor: Moderate · Latency: < 1s
🧭
Sensors (IMU / Barometer)
Relative only
Accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer track movement between fixes (dead reckoning); the barometer detects floor level indoors.
Power: Very low · Indoor: Excellent · Latency: Real-time
The location engine continuously weighs accuracy, freshness, and confidence across all sources to produce the single best position estimate.
📊
Single vs Dual-Frequency — The E5 Difference
Galileo's E5 signal — particularly the advanced E5 AltBOC modulation — is widely regarded as the most precise open GNSS signal ever designed. Dual-frequency (E1+E5) receivers measure and cancel ionospheric delay, the single largest error source in satellite positioning.
Single-Frequency (E1 only)
~3–4 m typical
Cannot correct ionospheric delay. More susceptible to multipath in urban canyons. Older or budget receivers.
VS
Dual-Frequency (E1 + E5)
< 1 m typical
Ionospheric delay corrected. Superior multipath rejection via wide E5 AltBOC bandwidth. Most flagship phones since 2018.
Error Sources — What Dual-Frequency Fixes
Ionospheric delay±5 m→Eliminated
Multipath±2–5 m→±0.5 m
Satellite clock±0.3 m→±0.3 m
Total (typical)~3–4 m→< 1 m
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Galileo Outages & Incidents
Galileo is a young system that has matured through some highly public setbacks. Understanding these events explains why redundancy, ground-segment resilience, and multi-GNSS receivers matter.
August 2014
Soyuz Upper-Stage Failure
A Fregat upper-stage anomaly stranded GSAT-0201 and GSAT-0202 in incorrect elliptical orbits. ESA partially recovered both satellites, and they were declared usable for navigation in 2015 — but from non-standard orbits.
July 2019
Six-Day Service Outage
A failure in the Precise Timing Facility of the ground segment took the Galileo initial service offline for almost a week — the most serious GNSS outage in modern history. It drove major investment in ground-segment redundancy.
December 2020
Brief Signal Interruption
A short, partial service interruption affecting some satellites highlighted the importance of the constellation's growing redundancy as more FOC satellites came online.
2024 — Gannon Storm
Solar Storm Degradation
The severe May 2024 geomagnetic storm degraded GNSS accuracy worldwide through ionospheric disturbance — a reminder that even a healthy constellation is affected by space weather, and a driver behind dual-frequency adoption.
2018–Present
Regional Spoofing & Jamming
Widespread interference across Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean affects all GNSS. Galileo's OSNMA authentication, rolled out from 2023, is the European response to spoofing.
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About Galileo
Galileo is the European Union's global navigation satellite system (GNSS), operated by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) with system design and development by the European Space Agency (ESA). It is the only global satellite navigation system under civilian control — unlike GPS (US military), GLONASS (Russian military), and BeiDou (Chinese military).
The constellation consists of approximately 30 satellites orbiting at 23,222 km altitude — roughly 3,000 km higher than GPS — in three orbital planes at 56° inclination. Each satellite completes one orbit every 14 hours and 4 minutes, and the constellation repeats its ground track every 10 days. Galileo provides global coverage between 75°N and 75°S, with service degradation at extreme polar latitudes.
Galileo's Open Service (OS) offers sub-metre accuracy for free, while the High Accuracy Service (HAS) — launched in January 2023 — provides sub-20 cm positioning by broadcasting precise corrections directly from the satellites, requiring no internet connection. This makes Galileo the first GNSS to offer precision positioning as a free, globally available service. See our satellite systems guide for more on how these systems work.
The system also provides a unique Search and Rescue service with a Return Link — the only GNSS that can confirm distress beacon detection back to the user. Compare Galileo with other constellations on the Orbital Radar 3D globe, or explore the GPS tracker for side-by-side viewing.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Galileo constellation consists of approximately 30 satellites in medium Earth orbit at 23,222 km altitude, distributed across three orbital planes. The target Full Operational Capability (FOC) constellation is 24 operational satellites plus 6 active spares. See the constellation status dashboard above for live counts.
Galileo and GPS are complementary rather than competitive. Galileo's free High Accuracy Service provides sub-20 cm positioning, which exceeds standard GPS accuracy. However, GPS has more satellites and decades of operational maturity. Most modern devices use both systems simultaneously for the best accuracy. See the quad-comparison above for detailed differences.
Most smartphones from 2017 onwards support Galileo, including all iPhones from iPhone 8, Samsung Galaxy S8 onwards, Google Pixel devices, and most mid-range Android phones with Broadcom or Qualcomm GNSS chipsets. Use the phone checker above to verify your specific device.
The HAS, launched in January 2023, provides sub-20 cm positioning accuracy for free by broadcasting precise orbit and clock corrections directly from the satellites on the E6 frequency. Unlike GPS RTK services, no internet connection or paid subscription is required — making it the world's first free precision positioning service broadcast from space.
Every Galileo satellite carries MEOSAR transponders that detect 406 MHz distress beacons from ships, aircraft, and personal locator beacons. Galileo is unique in offering a Return Link Service (RLS) — it can send a confirmation message back to the beacon, letting the person in distress know their signal was received. See the SAR section above for more.
GSAT-0201 and GSAT-0202 were launched into incorrect elliptical orbits in August 2014 due to a Soyuz/Fregat upper stage failure. ESA managed to partially correct their orbits, and both satellites were declared usable for navigation by December 2015. They now contribute to the constellation from non-standard orbits. See the full story above.
Galileo is operated by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), with system design and development by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Galileo Control Centre has two sites in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany and Fucino, Italy. It is the only global GNSS under civilian control.
Galileo broadcasts on E1 (1575.42 MHz, shared with GPS L1), E5a (1176.45 MHz), E5b (1207.14 MHz), E5 AltBOC (1191.795 MHz — combining E5a and E5b into the most advanced GNSS signal ever designed), and E6 (1278.75 MHz, for HAS and PRS). See the service tiers section for which services use which frequencies.
EGNOS is Europe's Satellite-Based Augmentation System — it broadcasts correction and integrity data from geostationary satellites to improve GPS and Galileo accuracy to around 1 metre across Europe, and is critical for aviation. Galileo is the core navigation constellation; EGNOS is an overlay that enhances it. See the EGNOS section above. It is the European counterpart to America's WAAS.
Yes — like all GNSS, Galileo's weak signals can be jammed or spoofed, and interference has surged across parts of Europe. Galileo's defence is OSNMA (Open Service Navigation Message Authentication), which cryptographically signs the navigation message so receivers can detect fake signals — a capability standard GPS civil signals do not yet offer. See the jamming & spoofing section.
G2 is the next generation of Galileo satellites, with fully digital and reconfigurable navigation payloads, electric propulsion, and inter-satellite links. Twelve G2 satellites have been ordered from Airbus and Thales Alenia Space. They will replenish and upgrade the constellation over the coming years — see the launch countdown above for the next mission.
Galileo System Time (GST) is the constellation's internal time reference, which began on 22 August 1999 and is steered to within a few nanoseconds of UTC. Like GPS time, it carries no leap seconds (currently 18 seconds ahead of UTC). The GPS-to-Galileo Time Offset (GGTO) is broadcast so receivers can combine both systems. See the live GST clock above.
For free open service, Galileo's ~1 m and its sub-20 cm High Accuracy Service edge out standard GPS (~3–5 m), but dual-frequency GPS L1+L5 also reaches sub-metre accuracy. In practice they are complementary: phones use both at once, roughly doubling visible satellites and improving geometry. See the full GPS vs Galileo comparison above.
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Embed This Tracker
Add the Galileo constellation tracker to your website. The widget updates in real time and links back to the full tracker on Orbital Radar.