Galileo satellites now in space. Europe's rival to GPS is stepping up its efforts to provide precise navigation, road transport management, search and rescue services and secure banking. Galileo already combines the most precise atomic clock ever flown for navigation -- accurate to 1 second in 3 million years -- with a powerful transmitter to broadcast navigation data worldwide. It launched two more satellites into space on Friday from a South American spaceport in French Guiana. The satellites, named David and Sif1, join another pair that has been orbiting the Earth since last year. Now that the four satellites form a mini-constellation, Galileo can be validated and fine-tuned, after which 14 more satellites will be deployed by the end of 2014. The two satellites just launched are the first to carry search and rescue antennas part of the international Cospas-Sarsat system, which detects and locates emergency beacons activated by aircraft, ships and backcountry hikers in distress.
Check out video of the launch. Oct. 12, 1815 UTC / 2:15pm EDT - Soyuz-STB/Fregat-MT carrying Galileo-IOV 3&4 nav. sats. Navigation - The future - Galileo. Galileo is Europe’s own global navigation satellite system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control. It is inter-operable with GPS and Glonass, the US and Russian global satellite navigation systems. By offering dual frequencies as standard, Galileo will deliver real-time positioning accuracy down to the metre range. It will guarantee availability of the service under all but the most extreme circumstances and will inform users within seconds of any satellite failure, making it suitable for safety-critical applications such as guiding cars, running trains and landing aircraft. On 21 October 2011 came the first two of four operational satellites designed to validate the Galileo concept in both space and on Earth.
Galileo services will come with quality and integrity guarantees which marks the key difference of this first complete civil positioning system from the military systems that have come before. Galileo-Tour. GPS rival Galileo begins countdown for satellite launch. Galileo, Europe's rival to the US's GPS navigation system, is gearing up to launch its third and fourth satellites into space on Friday.
An Arianspace Soyuz rocket carrying the UK-built payload is scheduled to take off at 3:15pm local time (7:15pm in the UK) on Friday from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The lift-off comes a couple of weeks later than the 28 September rocket launch promised in May, but the Galileo programme is still on track to provide its first navigation services in 2014, the European Commission said on Thursday. Once the new additions are in orbit, the Galileo constellation will undergo validation and fine tuning, to get ready for another 22 satellites scheduled to join it in 2013.
The European Commission has said that it will increase the frequency of launches next year. With Galileo, Europe is aiming to provide a civilian-controlled alternative to GPS, but with more precision and reliability as to the exact position of the user in time and space. Galileo launch brings Europe's satellite navigation system another step closer. Europe's second pair of fully operational Galileo satellites was successfully launched Friday (12 October 2012) from the European spaceport in French Guiana, South America.
The satellites' payloads were designed, manufactured and tested in the UK by Astrium and will be used with the two other satellites launched last year to validate the Galileo system design before becoming part of the final Galileo system. UK company SSTL is building the navigation payloads for the next 22 satellites which will form the operational constellation. Four is the minimum number of satellites needed to achieve a navigational fix on the ground, with one satellite each to measure latitude, longitude, altitude and provide a time reference. Once this second pair of satellites has been commissioned and tested, the quartet will form a completely operational mini-constellation that will be used to validate the Galileo system. Much of this growth will come from applications based on space services such as Galileo.
Galileo (satellite navigation) Galileo logo Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) currently being built by the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA). The €5 billion project[1] is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. One of the aims of Galileo is to provide a high-precision positioning system upon which European nations can rely, independently from the Russian GLONASS, US GPS, and Chinese Compass systems, which can be disabled in times of war or conflict.[2] Tests in February 2014 found that for Galileo's search and rescue function, operating as part of the existing International Cospas-Sarsat Programme, 77% of simulated distress locations can be pinpointed within 2 km, and 95% within 5 km.[3] In operation Galileo will use two ground operations centres, near Munich in Germany and in Fucino in Italy.
On 21 October 2011 the first two of four operational satellites were launched to validate the system. Basic navigation services will be free of charge.