Science News
Second satellite launched for Galileo navigation system
By DPA
Apr 27, 2008, 15:50 GMT

Moscow - A second satellite planned for use in the European navigation system Galileo was launched early Sunday from the Russian space centre in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The 700-kilogram spacecraft was launched at 2216 GMT Saturday atop of a Soyuz cargo rocket, the Interfax news agency reported.

The GIOVE-B (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) satellite will orbit about 23,000 kilometres above the Earth. Giove in Italian means Zeus, or Jupiter, the king of the ancient gods.

An earlier launch of the GIOVE-A satellite in 2005 was the first piece of infrastructure placed into orbit for the Galileo system, which is planned for operation by 2013 with a network of 30 satellites and several Earth stations.

The satellite is intended to test new technology in space and carry out surveys and orbit measurements for future Galileo satellites.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the satellite carries the most accurate atomic clock ever flown into space.

The satellite was built by a European industrial team led by Astrium GmbH, with Thales Alenia Space performing integration and testing in Rome.

GIOVE-B will be controlled by a team of experts at the Fucino control centre in Italy.

European governments hope the Galileo system can gain a foothold in commercial and consumer applications against the US-operated Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network.

Russia and China are also planning their own satellite navigation systems.