Europese navigatiesatellieten Galileo klaar voor lancering (en)
Met dank overgenomen van Directoraat-generaal Ondernemingen en industrie (ENTR) i, gepubliceerd op woensdag 5 oktober 2011.
The first two Galileo navigation satellites are both now fuelled and checked for their launch by Soyuz from French Guiana on 20 October.
The two Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites reached Europe’s Spaceport last month. Galileo’s second flight model, FM2, touched down on 7 September on an Antonov-124 and the Galileo Protoflight Model followed it seven days later on an Ilyushin 76.
Both satellites are now fuelled and ready to be mated this week onto the dispenser that will hold them in place during launch before deploying them into their final 23 222 km orbit.