Europe And China Launch Significant Navigation Satellites
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Two of the world's satellite positioning service constellations reached important milestones this week, after the European Space Agency and China's Satellite Navigation Office each launched its own pair of satellites.
Europe's sats were carried by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that left Florida's Kennedy Space Center on September 18. A day later, China's birds rode a Long March 3B that launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province.
China's sats were the 63rd and 64th members of its Beidou constellation, which currently has 50 operating satellites.
This pair were the last of China's third-generation navigation-sat design. Local media reported that the two satellites are spares in case others falter, and that they include some tech that is expected to be included in fourth-gen sats.
[...] Europe's launch delivered the 31st and 32nd members of its Galileo constellation into space.
"With the deployment of these two satellites, Galileo completes its constellation as designed, reaching the required operational satellites plus one spare per orbital plane," proclaimed ESA director of navigation Javier Benedicto.
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