September 8, 2015

Next Soyuz mission from CSG

During the night of Thursday 10 to Friday 11 September, Soyuz will lift off from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana carrying the ninth and tenth Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellites of Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation constellation for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission. It will be the second Soyuz launch from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) this year.

For its 12th launch from the CSG, Soyuz is set to orbit the fifth and sixth FOC satellites for the Galileo constellation, following the previous two launched in March. Ultimately, Galileo is designed to give Europe an extremely precise, reliable and secure satellite navigation system.

Placed in a circular inclined orbit at an altitude of 23,522 kilometres, the two satellites—each weighing 715 kilograms—will be the ninth and tenth in the constellation. Their signals will be compatible and interoperable with existing satellite navigation systems, but one of Galileo’s key advantages is that it offers near-metric precision, and that is before the signal is further refined by additional processing.

The full Galileo constellation will comprise 26 satellites to provide unrivalled precision and serve an unprecedented range of applications. The 16 FOC satellites still to be deployed will be orbited by two further Soyuz flights from the CSG, each carrying two satellites, and three Ariane 5 flights, each carrying four satellites.

Read more about the Galileo programme:
https://cnes.fr/fr/galileo_campagne_vs12

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Contacts
Pascale Bresson    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Alain Delrieu    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 74 04    alain.delrieu@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37    julien.watelet@cnes.fr

cp160-2015_-_pre_soyouz_galileo_va.pdf (pdf - 31.27 KB)
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