November 13, 2014

Present orbits of the fifth and sixth Galileo satellites launched together by Soyuz on 22 August 2014 , in red, compared to their intended position, in dashed green, and the position of the four satellites launched in 2011 and 2012, in solid green (Image ESA)

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ESA has announced that one of the two satellites of the Galileo constellation launched on August 22, 2014 and ended up in the wrong orbit will be moved in the course of this month. A problem of the Fregat last stage of the rocket caused the insertion of the two satellites in an orbit very different from the planned one. If the corrective maneuvers will be satisfactory, they’ll be repeated for the other Galileo satellite in the same situation.