SCOPE
ESA is offering interested third parties from ESA Participating States to participate in the experimentation phase of the Celeste In-Orbit Demonstrator (IOD). This is a unique opportunity to test and validate innovative positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) concepts in real-world conditions using ESA's LEO-PNT demonstrator infrastructure.
We are looking for organisations—industry, research, and academia—who are eager to explore, evaluate, and shape the future of space-based PNT services. Whether you are developing cutting-edge user equipment, testing new use cases, or contributing to service demonstrations, your involvement can help drive the evolution of resilient high-performance PNT solutions.
The ESA Participant States to Celeste (ESA's FutureNAV Programme - Component 1 LEO-PNT) are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
INTRODUCTION
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have enabled a wide range of PNT capabilities, supporting society and the global economy. More than five billion Galileo receivers exist and the number of GNSS receiver shipments is expected to grow significantly. Growth is mainly driven by two areas: consumer solutions – such as smartphones, fitness devices, and tablets – as well as road and automotive technologies, including in-vehicle systems and on-board units.
However, jamming and spoofing increasingly disrupt services; the current MEO-based GNSS backbone may not meet future performance and resilience needs. This prompts a “multi-layer system of systems” approach combining MEO and LEO satellites, terrestrial systems, and integrated sensors.
LEO-PNT can enhance MEO GNSS through spectral and geometrical diversity, enabling new navigation techniques. The European Radionavigation Plan (2023) identifies LEO-PNT as a key emerging technology, envisioning an EU “System of PNT Systems” for resilience.
Most GNSS systems use L-band signals for performance and size efficiency, but congestion is driving exploration of alternative bands. LEO constellations can use higher frequencies for performance and resilience in advanced applications, and lower frequencies for better indoor and denied-environment coverage, vital for consumer and public safety.
Adopting open standards, like 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (5G NTN), presents an opportunity to promote interoperability standards for PNT. It could also accelerate user adoption and enable Fused PNT integrated with SatCom constellations.
Globally, LEO-PNT is a major trend with multiple commercial and institutional initiatives underway. This makes it one of the most closely followed topics in satellite navigation.
The Celeste LEO-PNT IOD Component of the ESA FutureNAV Programme, approved at the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial level CM22, aims to demonstrate the potential of PNT in low Earth orbit. Its first mission will feature a small constellation of demonstrator satellites to showcase the potential of LEO satellites for enhancing resilience, accuracy, and agility in navigation, to enable a long list of new applications and services. Development of two parallel demonstrators began in March 2024, with the first pair of satellites planned for launch by early 2026; these are called Pathfinder A (Pf-A). The full demonstration is expected by 2027 with the launch of eight Pathfinder B satellites (Pf-B).
More details about Celeste LEO-PNT In-Orbit demonstration (IOD) can be found in ESA's website and Enhancing GNSS with a Low Earth Orbit layer: Celeste In-Orbit Demonstration Mission
OBJECTIVES OF THE IOD THIRD PARTY EXPERIMENTATION PHASE
The primary objective of the experimentation phase is to demonstrate PNT services provided by the LEO satellites, as a standalone system and in conjunction with Galileo and MEO systems. Secondly, this phase aims to enable technologies through a broad range of field-testing carried under realistic operational conditions and involving user segment communities.
Minimum Use Case Coverage
Targeted End-User Verticals
The experimentation aims to involve representative users from the following sectors:
- Autonomous Vehicles (road, UAV)
- Railway and Maritime
- Aviation
- Critical Infrastructure
- Polar and Arctic Users
- Wireless Networks (5G/6G)
- Personal Emergency Services
- Asset Tracking and IoT
PLANNED APPROACH FOR EXPERIMENT PARTICIPATION
ESA opens the experimentation to third parties from ESA Participating States via this OSIP call, after completion of the expression of interest. Through the OSIP platform, ESA will share the signal-in-space characteristics, the timeline for experimentation, and technical information (e.g. identification of Pf-A and Pf-B satellites, allocation of satellite number, type of signals activated in each experiment, frequencies activated in each experiment) in due course prior to the experimentation. More details on the concept of operations for the experiments will be provided in the future via this OSIP page to the registered parties fulfilling the conditions of registration.
The technical material will be provided after signature of the terms and conditions attached to this page. Signing the terms and conditions does not automatically grant access to the Celeste technical material.
ESA reserves the right to cancel all or part of the experimentation with third parties participating to this OSIP call and/or modify the approach proposed to conduct the experimentation at any time.
DUTIES OF THE THIRD PARTY PARTICIPANTS
The parties that intend to express their interest need to provide, in answer to this OSIP call, a document describing how they intend to participate in the experimentation, which tools they plan to use, and the expected results. The answer shall include the entities involved and the respective ESA Participating States. ESA is particularly interested in knowing which of the use cases and end users might be covered. The document in answer to this call shall be no more than 5 to 7 pages.
The third-party participants to the experimentation agree to share with ESA the results of the experiments and be available to participate in potential workshops, organised by ESA, to share their results and discuss with the community.
DISCLAIMER
All information requested and provided in the frame of this OSIP call will be used for information purposes only. This OSIP call does not bind ESA to any present or future procurement actions, nor does it create any rights for respondents in relation to any present or future ESA procurements, output of evaluation, and/or related contract awards. The Agency reserves the right to issue amendments to the OSIP call.
PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION
ESA will use any personal data included in the responses to this OSIP call (e.g. names and contact details) exclusively for contacting the respondents in case it becomes necessary in relation to their submission. ESA will not disclose personal data to third parties without prior agreement of the respondent that had submitted their response, as per “ESA Personal Data Protection Framework”.[1]
