Europe adds two new satellites to your navigation system Galileo – Aguasdigital.com

                 Photo: EFE

A Soyuz rocket at the time of its launch from the European Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. EFE / File

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             Europe adds two new satellites to your navigation system Galileo

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09/11/2015 2:40 (-6 GTM)

                Paris, Sep 11 (EFE) .- The European Space Agency (ESA) today placed in orbit a new partner for the satellite navigation system Galileo constellation that already has ten of the twenty devices that will be operational in 2020 to compete with the US GPS.
The launch of “Alba” and “Oriana” aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket operated by the European consortium Arianespace, it took place from the European Space Centre in Kourou, in French Guiana, to the 02.08 GMT.
These two devices manufactured by OHB and Surrey Satellite Technology and are named in honor of two European girls who won a drawing competition to promote interest in aerospace science.
ESA has put into orbit later this year with a new pair of satellites to reinforce a system that is already operating, although far from full capacity, and is compatible with GPS.
This is the first service navigation for civilian use and not controlled by the military, like its US competitor, in which Europe has been working for two decades and which aspires to be much more accurate than GPS.
After numerous cost overruns and delays, first Galileo satellites orbit in October 2011 and the two preceding last March.
In August 2014, launching the first two operational satellites, since previous mission had validate the orbits , launched in 2014 and represented a resounding failure for the project.
A problem with the fuel made Soyuz “Doresa” and “Milena” end up in the wrong orbit, about 17,000 kilometers from Earth, rather from which they belonged, a circular 23,000 km.
The following releases, however, showed no failure and allowed to continue with the planned deployment of the constellation, which will provide advantages in transportation management (increased safety , streamlining operations or reduction of co-management), agriculture, fisheries, health and combating illegal immigration.