In the global deal, concluded on December 6th, 2005, the concessionaire consortium agreed that Oberpfaffenhofen will host a Galileo Control Center (GCC) and a Performance Evaluation Center (PEC). This - together with the strong Galileo activities in Bavaria and Germany in general - is the context for the Institute’s activities.
The measurement of the Doppler shift of the signal transmitted by Sputnik I - the very first artificial satellite – initiated satellite navigation. It led to the systems Transit and GPS in the US and to corresponding systems in the USSR/Russia. The first European GPS receiver was build by the Institute in 1981/82. The Institute was also amongst the pioneers with early time synchronization experiments on the D2 mission or the proposal for augmentation systems that were later developed under the names of WAAS and EGNOS.
Today, the work at the Institute can be classified into a system and application area:
The Institute is operating a time laboratory, is generating the system time for the Galileo Test Environment in Berchtesgaden, and is providing consultancy for the Galileo Time Generation. The Institute is aiming at contributing to the evolution of Galileo towards a second generation in time generation and other areas. The experience gained in studies before and during the development of Galileo, the Institute’s powerful NavSim tool, and the development of the ionospheric processor for EGNOS are a good basis for these activities.