Another pair of Galileo navigation satellites is scheduled for launch by a Soyuz rocket this 24 May from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, bringing the Galileo system a step closer to operational use.
Europe’s latest navigation satellites, launched last December, have been officially commissioned into the Galileo constellation, and are now broadcasting working navigation signals since 22 April.
Galileos 11 and 12 were launched together on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 17 December. The satellites’ navigation payloads were submitted to a gamut of tests, centred on ESA’s Redu centre in Belgium, which possesses a 20 m-diameter antenna to analyse the satellites’ signals in great detail.
For users to navigate with metre-level accuracy, Galileo must keep extremely accurate time. Because light travels at a fixed speed, just under 30 cm every billionth of a second, the time it takes for Galileo signals to reach a user’s receiver on the ground can be converted into distance. All the receiver has to do is multiply the travel time by the speed of light, pinpointing its location from at least four satellites. Read more…
The latest pair of navigation satellites has reached Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, beginning a new Galileo launch campaign, which will culminate in a launch on 24 May.
The 13th and 14th Galileo satellites left ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on Monday, safely cocooned within protective air-conditioned containers.
They were taken by road to Luxembourg Airport, where they were loaded aboard a Boeing 747 cargo jet for a dawn takeoff the next morning.
The satellites touched down at Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport in French Guiana at 11:15 on Tuesday local time. Read more…
The navigation satellite set to become the 16th in the Galileo constellation has been taken through a Europe-wide rehearsal for its launch and early operations in space.
Sitting in the cleanroom environment of ESA’s ESTEC technology centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, the satellite was last week linked to a trio of sites across the continent: the Galileo control centres in Fucino, Italy and Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, as well as ESA’s ESOC operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany.
“These System Compatibility Test Campaigns (STSCs) occur on a regular basis,” explained Liviu Stefanov, lead Flight Operations Director for the next Galileo launch in May. “Last December saw a campaign using Read more…
Europe’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites started broadcasting working navigation messages 29 January. These two satellites were launched together on 11 September last year.
Once safely in orbit and their systems activated, their navigation payloads and search and rescue transponders were subjected to a rigorous process of in-orbit testing, to ensure their performance reached the necessary specifications to become part of the Galileo system.
Radio-frequency measurements of the Galileo signals were made from ESA’s Redu centre in Belgium. The site boasts a 20 m-diameter dish to analyse their signal shape in high resolution. Read more…
Another pair of Galileo navigation satellites is scheduled for launch by Soyuz rocket in May, ahead of a quartet on an Ariane 5 in the autumn, bringing the Galileo system a step closer to operational use.
The European Commission asked ESA to look into the feasibility of a Soyuz launch in the first half of the year to speed up the deployment of the constellation and to increase its robustness for delivering initial services.
One satellite is in storage at ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands, having completed all its testing to clear it for flight, with another due to join it very soon. Read more…
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…