European Satellite Navigation Industries [SEP] industry
European Satellite Navigation Industries
European Satellite Navigation Industries, formerly called Galileo Industries until legal action prompted a name change, was a joint venture of the companies Alcatel Alenia Space and Thales (France), Finmeccanica (Italy), EADS Astrium (UK and Germany) and Galileo Sistemas y Servicios (a consortium of seven Spanish companies).
The company was the primary construction company for the Galileo positioning system, tasked with developing and building the satellites and components for the ground segment infrastructure of this satellite navigation system. The partner
Science and Industry Corp, AutoNavi Holdings Ltd, and China North Industries Group Corp.
On 27 December 2018, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System started to provide global services.
Nomenclature.
The official English name of the system is "BeiDou Navigation Satellite System". It is named after the Big Dipper asterism, which is known in Chinese as "Běidǒu" (). The name literally means "Northern Dipper", the name given by ancient Chinese astronomers to the seven brightest stars of the Ursa Major constellation. Historically,