EU partners with SpaceX to launch Galileo satellites

European Union has signed a deal with SpaceX to launch four of its Galileo navigation satellites via Falcon 9 rockets to catch up with the launch schedule. The agreement between the two parties covers two launches between April and July next year, confirms EU Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton.

Galileo is Europe’s own global navigation satellite system, which provides positioning services. It currently provides initial services with GPS and GLONASS.

Breton said that the contract is worth 180 million euros ($191 million). This new deal is a result of past launch failures and delayed EU’s plans to ship the new satellites into orbit.

Aside from this, the European Union has already launched its Euclid space telescope with SpaceX in July this year, the first images of its observation were released later on Tuesday.

In 2024, SpaceX also aims to launch Eruope’s Hera probe, a follow-up mission to NASA’s DART spacecraft, which last year succeeded in altering the path of a moonlet satellite in the first test of a future planetary defense.

(source)