Galileo 9 and 10 Functioning ‘Perfectly’

Galileo satellites 9 and 10 are functioning perfectly, and the initial series of flight operations is continuing as part of the critical launch and early orbit phase, according to a European Space Agency Rocket Science blog by Daniel Scuka.

Galileo 9 and 10 lifted off together at 02:08 GMT on Sept. 11 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Soyuz launcher, bringing to 10 the total number of Galileo satellites in orbit.

“The pair are being stepped through an intense series of check-outs, confirmations, mode changes, configurations and health verifications by the joint ESA/CNES mission team working around the clock at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany,” Daniel writes. “The team are now focusing on conducting a series of thruster burns designed to start the drift of the two satellites toward their target orbital positions.”

“Following the burns performed during the LEOP (launch and early orbit phase), the satellites will continue naturally drifting, ending up in their final desired operational orbits at about 23,222 km after another set of thruster burns, planned to achieve fine positioning in orbit, around the end of October,” said Liviu Stefanov, co-flight director from ESA.

With the excellent performance of the spacecraft and the ground teams, the LEOP is expected to wrap up soon.

Read more at Daniel’s blog here.

Watch the liftoff.