Europe is launching two more navigation satellites on Friday – the seventh and eighth spacecraft in the £4.4bn Galileo navigation programme. They will blast off from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana and, if successful, will bring Galileo to the verge of operation.
Galileo is a European satellite navigation system. By 2020 it will consist of up to 30 satellites, most of them operational, but with six orbiting spares.
Like the internet, a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) acts to catalyse economic activities. In 2013, the global market for GNSS products was valued at €175bn. This is set to rise to an estimated €237bn in 2020.
At present Europe relies on American GPS and Russian Glonass signals. The European Union recognised in the 1990s that businesses and services were at risk should these be turned off for any reason. So in partnership with the European Space Agency, the EU set about developing an independent system.
Unlike the American and Russian systems, Galileo is under civilian rather than military control. Its first two satellites launched on 21 October 2011, and more followed. All went smoothly until 22 August 2014, when the fifth and sixth satellite ended up in the wrong orbit.
Friday’s launch is due at 21:46:18 GMT. Three hours, 47 minutes and 57 seconds later, the satellites will be deployed. Six further Galileo satellites are scheduled for launch this year.
Preliminary navigation services to smartphones, in-car navigations systems and to a global search and rescue system will be offered later this year.
