Notices of the European Space Agency (ESA)

Start the countdown to launch the first Galileo satellites

The European Space Agency says it has completed assembly of the Soyuz launcher

Paris (EFE) .- The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today that it is about the launch of the first two satellites will form part of the European Galileo system and will be put into orbit on 20 October.

The agency said in a statement that you have completed assembly of the Soyuz launcher that will propel the satellite into space from Kourou Space Center European (French Guiana), thanks to its 900 kg of fuel.

This is the first step in the deployment of the Galileo network, to be followed next year a second pair of satellites with a total of 26.

The rocket assembly operation started last August 16 in the space station, and has now completed three weeks before the shuttle is moved to the platform to run-off.

The satellite arrived at the base in mid-September, from the facilities of the European manufacturer Thales Alenia Space Italy, outside Rome.

They will travel on top of the vehicle, for the first time not depart from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk, Russia, ESA said.

The first four satellites will form "the core of the constellation operational European satellite navigation," said ESA.

Among other instruments carried on board the "best ever atomic clocks used for navigation" with an accuracy of one second in three million years, and a powerful transmitter that will receive the signal from high-precision navigation anywhere in the world he said.

Source:lavanguardia.com