ARIANESPACE - Ariane 5 / Flight VA240 Mission poster.
12 December 2017
Galileo lifts off
Europe has four more Galileo navigation satellites in the sky following their launch on an Ariane 5 rocket. After today’s success, only one more launch remains before the Galileo constellation is complete and delivering global coverage.
Ariane 5, operated by Arianespace under contract to ESA, lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 18:36 GMT (19:36 CET, 15:36 local time), carrying Galileo satellites 19–22. The first pair of 715 kg satellites was released almost 3 hours 36 minutes after liftoff, while the second pair separated 20 minutes later.
They were released into their target 22 922 km-altitude orbit by the dispenser atop the Ariane 5 upper stage. In the coming days, this quartet will be steered into their final working orbits. There, they will begin around six months of tests – performed by the European Global Navigation Satellite System Agency (GSA) – to check they are ready to join the working Galileo constellation.
Four Galileos on Ariane 5
This mission brings the Galileo system to 22 satellites. Initial Services began almost a year ago, on 15 December 2016.
“Today’s launch is another great achievement, taking us within one step of completing the constellation,” remarked Jan Wörner, ESA’s Director General.
“It is a great achievement of our industrial partners OHB (DE) and SSTL (GB) for the satellites, as well as Thales-Alenia-Space (FR, IT) and Airbus Defense and Space (GB, FR) for the ground segment and all their subcontractors throughout Europe, that Europe now has a formidable global satellite navigation system with remarkable performance.”
Galileos atop Ariane 5
Paul Verhoef, ESA’s Director of Navigation, added: “ESA is the design agent, system engineer and procurement agent of Galileo on behalf of the European Commission. Galileo is now an operating reality, so, in July, operational oversight of the system was passed to the GSA.
“Accordingly, GSA took control of these satellites as soon as they separated from their launcher, with ESA maintaining an advisory role. This productive partnership will continue with the next Galileo launch, by Ariane 5 in mid-2018.
Related links:
What is Galileo?: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Navigation/Galileo/What_is_Galileo
EC Galileo website: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/space/galileo/index_en.htm
European GNSS Agency: http://www.gsa.europa.eu/
Use Galileo: http://www.usegalileo.eu/EN/
Images, Video, Text, Credits: ARIANESPACE/ESA/Manuel Pedoussaut/Pierre Carril, 2017.
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