Soyuz launcher takes off from French Guiana with two new satellites from the European constellation Galileo

The Soyuz VS26 launcher launched from the Guyanese Space Center (CSG) on Saturday, December 4, with two satellites from the European navigation system Galileo. Once released, they will bring to 28 the number of components of this constellation, capable of giving positions of the order of a meter. The firing window was used despite the pouring rain that has been raining down on Guyana for several days. Originally scheduled for December 1, firing had been postponed twice for meteorological reasons and once due to “the unavailability of a telemetry station”.

Among the Galileo satellites already in place, 14 were transported by the Russian launcher between 2011 and 2016 and 12 by Ariane 5 between 2016 and 2018. Ultimately, the constellation will include 30 satellites and will have cost some eight billion euros. ‘Europe. And from 2024, new generation Galileo satellites will be launched to continue to compete with the American GPS system, in particular for questions of strategic sovereignty.

This shot is also loaded with symbolism since the year 2021 corresponds to the tenth anniversary of Soyuz’s presence in Guyana. Since 2011, the year of the first launch, 26 launchers of this type have taken off from Sinnamary, a town near Kourou, where the launch pad reserved for Soyuz is installed. The mission, carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the European Commission, is the penultimate carried out from the CSG for 2021. On December 22, an Ariane 5 rocket will carry the James Webb telescope to the cosmos , from where it will provide scientists with information on the formation of the Universe.