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Satnews Daily
May 3rd, 2012

Arianespace + EC... The Grand Galileo Plan (Launches)



Photo courtesy of Arianespace.
[SatNews] In Brussels, Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and CEO of Arianespace, handed over a 1/10 scale model of four...

...Galileo satellites under an Ariane 5 fairing to Antonio Tajani, Vice-President of the European Commission. This ceremony was held in conjunction with a meeting of manufacturers involved in the Galileo program. The European Commission and the European Space Agency have selected Arianespace to deploy the entire Galileo constellation.


Artistic rendition of a Galileo satellite, courtesy of the European Space Agency.
Deployment started in 2005 and 2007 with the launch of the first two experimental satellites, Giove-A and Giove-B, then continued on October 21, 2011 with the first Soyuz launch from the Guiana Space Center, carrying the first two satellites in the constellation. From now until 2015, deployment of the 24 satellites in the constellation will continue, using six Soyuz and three Ariane 5 rockets. The satellites are now under construction by the European space industry.

The European Commission and ESA have also signed an agreement with Arianespace for the launch of three dedicated missions in the space component of Europe's GMES program—Global Monitoring for Environment and Security. The first of these satellites, Sentinel-1, will be launched by Soyuz, while the next two satellites, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3, will be launched by Vega.

Following the ceremony, Jean-Yves Le Gall said, "I would like to thank the European Commission and the European Space Agency for expressing their trust by choosing us to deploy the Galileo constellation and GMES satellites. Today, they are our largest customers, in terms of sales, and the only ones to make use of all three launchers in the Arianespace family, Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega, all launched from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport."