ESA takes a decisive step in the implementation of the Galileo system

Paris.- With the launch on Wednesday of four new satellites of the European navigation system Galileo, the European Space Agency (ESA) takes a decisive step in the completion of a project that will upgrade to an improved level of GPS and GPS. Russian Glonass.

An Ariane-5 rocket made the fourth launch of the year at 11:25 GMT, from the Kurú base in French Guiana, to place these four new satellites into a geostationary orbit that will bring the total number of satellites to 26.

Nearly four hours after take-off, the end of the mission and the deployment of the satellites in their circular orbit 22,922 kilometers from the Earth took place.

Four more satellites will be missing, to be deployed in 2021, completing a constellation that will have 24 operational and six other satellites.

This will be the culmination of a project that began, many years late, in 2011 and has offered its first services for a year and a half.

With these four new satellites, Galileo, which claims to have a precision of up to one meter, superior to that of its competitors, will further improve its accuracy and, in addition, will be endowed with worldwide coverage .

The first launch of Galileo since four other satellites were put into orbit in 2017.

This launch will be the last of the European system on board an Ariane-5, since what will already be done with the new Ariane-6 European shuttle, which will take over from 2020.

This will be the third rocket to use the system, whose first satellites have gone aboard the Russian Soyuz rockets.

The deployment of the constellation has not been a bed of roses, especially because of the problem that arose in 2014, when the Russian shuttle placed two of its satellites in a bad orbit.

Replaced later, they remain in a "degraded" orbit, although ESA ensures that they are useful to the navigation system.

Since its creation, the system has experienced delays which have led to an increase in estimated costs. approximately 10,000 million euros ($ 8,536 million).

But ESA considers that it is an important investment, as evidenced by the fact that it already has nearly 300 million users and that it is present in most mobile phone operating systems.

of the United Kingdom after the Brexit is the subject of debate, although in ESA they consider that it will not have a great influence on the l 39; future of the project.