ESA launches four new Galileo satellites into orbit

The ESA has successfully launched four new Galileo satellites into orbit. The satellites, simply called Galileo 23 to 26, will contribute to the European civil positioning system of the same name.

The launch took place early afternoon, European time, in French Guiana, in South America. The four satellites were transported on an Ariane 5 rocket from the commercial company Arianespace. 3.5 hours after launch, the first pair of satellites were released and the second pair followed 20 minutes later. The four Galileos are now in medium earth orbit, at 22,922 km above sea level. In the coming days, they will be maneuvered into their final orbits after which they will be tested for approximately six months for readiness to contribute to the Galileo positioning network.

It took the European Space Agency four years to get the 26 Galileo satellites into orbit. This completes phase two of the deployment of the Galileo satellites, but there is also a phase three, with a further twelve satellites. These will serve as reserves and replacements for the older copies from 2011. Phase three will be launched around 2025.

Galileo is the EU’s own location determination system. The US has its own GPS network, Russia has Glonass and China has BeiDou. Since Galileo is still relatively young, not all smartphones ‘in the wild’ support the network yet. However, there are more and more. For example, Apple has been supporting it since the iPhone 6s, Oneplus since the 5 and Samsung starting with the Galaxy S8.

Footage of the launch of the Ariane rocket – image: ESA