The first two satellites of the Galileo constellation could not be put into orbit Friday. Blame it on the Russian Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage. Another setback for the European future GPS.
The first two satellites of the Galileo constellation may well be lost with all hands after “switching error” occurred Friday. Engineers at the European Space Agency dread this event and make every effort to bring the satellites in the initial position, also hoping that the satellites have enough fuel to return to their orbit and ensure their independence.
Friday so satellites launched by a Soyuz, which were to be placed in orbit at 23,500 kilometers, gathered at 17,000 km above the Earth. A fiasco that a commission of inquiry will have to explain, and which could result in a postponement of six calendar months.
According to Arianespace, an “anomaly” of unknown origin has occurred within the flight phase of Fregat upper stage of the Soyuz rocket. For now, the European Space Agency and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales remain silent. Sunday, the CEO of CNES, Jean-Yves Le Gall, also interdepartmental coordinator for France of the Galileo program, acknowledged that the challenge would be “complicated” to bring the two satellites in the right way.
Back on investment
The conclusions of the expert made in a month will be crucial because of the 22 satellites of the Galileo program, the Russian launcher must put ten in their orbits.
That adds to the woes facing the project since its inception in 1999 in all, the EU has committed 13 billion of public money in this program in 2017 is expected to rival the American GPS.
But the road bumpy Galileo leaves no worry of former ESA. “France is a major contributor. But what is for our country ROI? Initially, the shooting would take place with launcher Arianespace. So there was a sense for France to invest in this program. Then turned to Soyuz cheaper. But their reliability is she is not in question? Moreover, at the time, choices were made to favor industrial Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, German OHB-System. The result is that our engineers have had to be rescued from the SME to try to catch up the schedule “, challenges the engineer who deplores the financial choices made by Europe.
It should be .. Toulouse
Toulouse, Galileo is the story of a missed appointment. The city relied on the presence in the walls of the seat of the Galileo concessionaire, saw melt gradually hopes to bring a piece of the pie.
From the outset of the project, the countries of EU and industry have found themselves in conflict on the issue of risk sharing. Stakeholders in the deployment phase, Astrium and Thales considered insufficient financial effort of Europe. The question of a public-private partnership was later abandoned in favor of full funding of public funds. There was also pressure from the United States for which ESA had underestimated the security of a location system whose signals had been misappropriated by potential terrorists.
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