GIOVE-A’S FREGAT DISPOSAL ASSESSMENT D. Navarro-Reyes(1), R. Zandbergen(2), D. Escobar(3) (1)ESA/ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands, Email:
[email protected] (2) ESA/ESOC, Robert-Bosch-Str. 5, D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany, Email:
[email protected] (3)GMV at ESOC, ESA/ESOC Robert-Bosch-Str. 5, D-64293 Darmstadt, Germany, Email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT dedicated stations deployed around the world. The Galileo constellation is defined as a Walker 27/3/1 and is composed of 3 equally-spaced orbital planes with a Galileo will be Europe’s own global navigation satellite nominal inclination of 56 degrees and a semi-major axis system, providing a highly accurate, guaranteed global of 29,600 km. Each plane will contain nine equally- positioning service under civilian control. Following the spaced satellites plus a spare satellite. The first launches approval of Galileo in 1999, a demonstration element are foreseen in 2010, with the full constellation was added – the Galileo System Test Bed (GSTB) with deployed by end 2013. the GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B satellites – to allow early experimentation with the navigation signals and services Following the approval of Galileo in 1999, a before committing to the final constellation design. demonstration element was added – the Galileo System Test Bed (GSTB) with the GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B GIOVE-A (launched on 28 Dec 2005) and GIOVE-B satellites, whose mission was: (launched on 26 April 2008) were injected in the Galileo operational orbit (semi-major axis 29600 km, x To secure use of the frequencies allocated by the circular orbit, inclination 56 degrees) by direct injection International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for with Soyuz/FREGAT launch vehicle.