The two Galileo spacecraft for Arianespace’s latest Soyuz launch at the service of Europe’s Galileo satellite-based navigation system, and the company’s record 12th mission overall in 2015, have been integrated at the Spaceport in preparation for their December 17 liftoff from French Guiana.
Giuliano Gatti, ESA’s Galileo Space Segment Manager.
Thierry Fahem, Arianespace Galileo sat 11-12 project director.
Thierry Wilmart, Arianespace Galileo sat 11-12 mission director
Jean-Claude Garreau, Arianespace Launch Site Operations Manager
The next two satellites in Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system will be launched together on 17 December, concluding a year that will double the number of Galileo satellites in orbit. Media are invited to take part in an audio briefing on 16 December.
Galileo satellites 11/12 are scheduled to lift off at 11:51 GMT on 17 December (12:51 CET; 08:51 Kourou time) from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on a Soyuz rocket. They are expected to become operational, after initial in-orbit testing, next spring.
This is the sixth Galileo launch overall and the third this year, set to bring the number of satellites in space up to 12.
This launch takes place just 10 days before the 10th anniversary of the liftoff of Europe’s very first navigation satellite. Since the experimental GIOVE-A took off on 27 December 2005, not only has the first third of the Galileo constellation reached orbit, but a network of Galileo ground stations has been built across the globe. Read more…
On 17 December, Galileo satellites 11 and 12 will be launched on top of the legendary Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Ten years after the launch of GIOVE A, on 28 December 2005, Galileo is now a reality.
Having completed their rigorous checks in space, two more of Europe’s Galileo satellites are now fully operational, broadcasting navigation signals and, from today, relaying search and rescue messages from across the globe.
Galileos 7 and 8 were launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 27 March. Once the satellites were nursed to life in orbit, their navigation payloads underwent a lengthy test campaign.
This involved assessing that the satellites themselves were performing as planned and meshing with the worldwide Galileo ground network.
The satellites’ secondary search and rescue payloads were also put to the test, picking up and relaying UHF signals from distress beacons as part of the international Cospas–Sarsat system. Read more…
The next Galileo launch campaign has begun with the arrival of the latest pair of navigation satellites at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Their arrival is the start of a busy schedule that will culminate with their launch on a Soyuz rocket on 17 December, the third Galileo launch of the year.
Galileos 11 and 12 touched down at a rain-soaked Cayenne-Félix Eboué Airport on Friday 31 October at 1300 local time.
The satellites were unloaded from their Boeing 747 aircraft, still in their humming air-conditioned containers, straight onto waiting lorries for the last leg of their trip to the Spaceport. Read more…
Europe’s fifth and sixth Galileo satellites, subject to complex salvage manoeuvres following their launch last year into incorrect orbits, will help to perform an ambitious year-long test of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (clocks run more slowly the closer they are to heavy objects).
Galileos 5 and 6 were launched together by a Soyuz rocket on 22 August 2014. But the faulty upper stage stranded them in elongated orbits that blocked their use for navigation.
ESA’s specialists moved into action and oversaw a demanding set of manoeuvres to raise the low points of their orbits and make them more circular.
“The satellites can now reliably operate their navigation payloads continuously, and the European Commission, with the support of ESA, is assessing their eventual operational use,” explains ESA’s senior satnav advisor Javier Ventura-Traveset.
“In the meantime, the satellites have accidentally become extremely useful scientifically, as tools to test Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity by measuring more accurately than ever before the way that gravity affects the passing of time.” Read more…
This timelapse video shows Galileo satellites 9 and 10, from final preparations to liftoff on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 02:08 GMT (04:08 CEST) on 11 September 2015.
