Galileo SATs 5-6 are scheduled to lift off at 12:31 GMT (14:31 CEST, 09:31 local time) on 21 August from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on top of a Soyuz rocket.
You can follow free live videostream of the launch on: ESA TV and Arianespace TV
and on the Twitter accounts: @ESA, @Arianespace, @GalileoGNSS and the hashtag #Galileo Read more…
The next pair of Galileo satellites are due to be launched together on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana on 21 August, advancing the deployment of Europe’s own satellite navigation constellation.
Following launch, the most crucial point in the flight comes when the two satellites separate from their upper stage and the Launch and Early Operations (LEOP) phase begins, run from ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Read more…
Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, and Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director General for Enterprise and Industry at the European Commission, during the signature of the delegation agreement on the deployment phase of the European satellite radionavigation programme Galileo, and the signature of the 4th amendment to the delegation agreement on the further implementation of the European satellite navigation programme EGNOS, at ESA headquarters in Paris, on 16 July 2014.
Signature ESA/EU Delegation Agreements
Billions of satnav position fixes are performed daily, but determining your place in the world using Galileo system is quite new. So ESA offered to issue certificates for the very first 50 Galileo fixes, provoking responses from across the whole world.
The surprise was the extent of Galileo’s reach. While half the applications came from Galileo’s home continent, others came from the rest of the world, including Australia, Canada, China, Egypt, New Zealand, Russia, USA and Vietnam. Read more…
To mark the first anniversary of Galileo’s historic first satnav positioning measurement, ESA plans to award certificates to groups who picked up signals from the four satellites in orbit to perform their own fixes.
Galileo Satnav System
In 2011 and 2012 the first four satellites were launched, the minimum number needed for navigation fixes. On 12 March 2013, Galileo’s space and ground elements came together for the first time to perform the historic first determination of a ground location (the Navigation Laboratory of ESA’s Technical Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands). Read more…
The in-orbit validation (IOV) of Galileo has been achieved: Europe now has the operational nucleus of its own satellite navigation constellation in place, the world’s first civil-owned and operated satnav system.
In 2011 and 2012 the first four satellites were launched into orbit. These satellites were combined with a growing global ground infrastructure to allow the project to undergo its crucial IOV phase. Read more…
The four Galileo satellites in orbit have achieved their first aerial fix of longitude, latitude and altitude, marking the first time ever that Europe has been able to determine the position of an aircraft using only its own independent navigation system.
Aircraft tracking via Galileo
This milestone took place on a Fairchild Metro-II above Gilze-Rijen Air Force Base in the Netherlands at 12:38 GMT on 12 November 2013. Read more…