Achi news desk-
WASHINGTON – Falcon 9 successfully placed a pair of Galileo navigation satellites into orbit April 27 in a launch that was unusual in many ways.
The Falcon 9 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 8:34 pm Eastern, carrying the Galileo satellites GM25 and FM27. The European Union Agency for the Space Programme, or EUSPA, the EU agency that handles Galileo operations, confirmed that the satellites were in orbit and operating several hours later.
The launch was conducted with a degree of secrecy usually reserved for classified national security launches. SpaceX did not provide any video of the launch after the stage separation and its webcast ended after confirmation of payload fair separation. The company deferred to the customer for further updates on the mission.
It was not clear what prompted the heightened secrecy. Previous Galileo satellite launches on Ariane and Soyuz rockets from French Guiana received more attention, as did the Falcon 9 launches of Galileo’s American counterpart, the Global Positioning System.
Neither the European Commission nor the European Space Agency announced the launch in advance. In statements after the successful launch, European officials studiously avoided talking about how the satellites were launched.
“2 new Galileo satellites were successfully launched last night,” Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for the internal market, posted on social media April 28. “Pending Ariane6, the 2024 launches are essential for Galileo’s resilience, robustness and continuity of its civil and military applications.”
That statement came closest to acknowledging why the satellites were launching on Falcon 9. The retirement of the Ariane 5, the loss of access to the Soyuz rocket after the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago and the delay in the introduction of the Ariane 6 left Europe without its own means of launching Galileo satellites, a situation called a “launch crisis” by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.
Breton said in November 2023 that the European Commission was finalizing an agreement with SpaceX for two Falcon 9 launches, each carrying two Galileo satellites, scheduled for 2024. The value of that contract was 180 million euros ($193 million), he said.
This launch was the second European institutional mission to fly on Falcon 9 due to the ongoing launcher crisis, after the launch of ESA’s Euclid space telescope in July 2023. Another pair of Galileo satellites will launch on Falcon 9 later this year, along with on separate Falcon 9 launches of ESA’s EarthCARE earth science mission and the Hera asteroid mission.
For SpaceX, this launch was the 20thed flew this booster, tying a reuse goal set earlier in the month by another booster launching a set of Starlink satellites. The booster previously launched missions ranging from a GPS satellite and Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lunar lander to 13 sets of Starlink satellites.
The launch was also the last mission for this reinforcement, which was designed B1060. SpaceX said the extra performance required to place the Galileo satellites into medium Earth orbit meant that the booster could not be recovered. It broke a streak of 146 Falcon 9 launches with a booster landing dating back to November 2022, when SpaceX conducted back-to-back Falcon 9 launches carrying geostationary satellites where the boosters were spent.
“We are working towards qualifying our fleet of Falcon boosters and fairings to support 40 missions each,” the company said after liftoff, noting that this launch was the 200ed to use previously flown payload bays.
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