Four new satellites joined the ranks of the European satnav programme Galileo on Wednesday 25 July.
‘Mission accomplished! 4 Galileo satellites are in orbit, a new step towards full operational capacity for Galileo in 2020,’ said the European Commission vice-president with responsibility for Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič, alongside Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, who said that the Juncker Commission had managed to boost the number of satellites from 6 to 26, something which no single member state would have been able to do on their own.
The four satellites (Tara, Samuel, Anna and Ellen, named after young winners of the European design competition held in 2011) were put into orbit using European launcher Ariane 5ES. The is due to be concluded in 2020 when the project will have a total of 30 satellites, before it can become fully operational. However, since December 2016, initial services have been launched, though not without technical hiccups (see EUROPE 11722).
Galileo and the earth observation programme Copernicus are the two flagship programmes of the EU's space policy, a policy for which the European Commission earmarks a budget of €16 billion for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12035). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)