GPS World

Tag: Kourou

  • Galileo gains new ground segment facility

    Galileo gains new ground segment facility

    Image: ESA
    Image: ESA

    Galileo’s ground segment has gained a new asset, the Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) facility — a 13.5-m parabola dish mounted on top of a 10-m high building structure of made of steel and concrete. It is based within Europe’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, beside TTCF-2.

    The TT&C antennas are uncrewed and operate on a fully automated basis from the two Galileo control centers located in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, and Fucino, Italy. The TT&C antennas are crucial to regular communication with the Galileo satellites.

    This latest antenna will play an important role during the upcoming modernization activities of the earlier TT&C antennas in the station network, which have been in service for several years. TTCF-7 will take over their tasks during the maintenance activities when they need to be taken offline.

  • 4 Galileo satellites fueled for July 25 launch

    4 Galileo satellites fueled for July 25 launch

    Technicians in SCAPE (Self Contained Atmospheric Protection Ensemble) suits fill Galileo satellites 22-26 with hydrazine fuel. (Photo: ESA)

    Europe’s next four Galileo satellites have been fueled at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in preparation for their launch on July 25, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

    The four satellites were placed into their protective containers to be transported from the S1A processing building to the S3B payload preparation building, where they were filled with the hydrazine fuel that will keep the satellites manoeuverable during their 12-year working lives.

    The next step is to fit the quartet onto the dispenser that holds them in place securely during launch and then releases them into space once the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket reaches its 22,922-kilometer-altitude target orbit.

    After that, the satellites plus dispenser will be fitted onto the upper stage then enclosed by the two sides of the protective launch fairing — one of which has had the mission logo added to it.

    Meanwhile, the Ariane 5 for this launch (Flight VA244) has undergone assembly inside the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building.

    Galileo’s Flight VA244 mission logo is attached to the Ariane 5 fairing ahead of the July 25 four-satellite launch. (Photo: ESA)