The Galileo 9/10 LEOP at ESOC is complete!

On 20 September at 18:22 CEST, the joint ESA/CNES team at ESOC confirmed that handover of Galileo satellites 9/10 to the Galileo Control Centre near Munich for continuation of their mission was complete.

Artist's view of a Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellite. Credit: ESA/Pierre Carril, 2015

Artist’s view of a Galileo Full Operational Capability (FOC) satellite. Credit: ESA/Pierre Carril, 2015

After a flawless orbit injection by Soyuz on 11 September, the critical launch & early orbit phase (LEOP) went extremely well, and both satellites are in excellent health and now enroute to their final operational orbits.

The formal hand-over time corresponds to the time that the second of the two was handed over; the first was handed over on 19 September.

The spacecraft were fully nominal at the time of handover.

While LEOP at ESOC for the mission operations team is now completed, ESA’s Flight Dynamics team will continue supporting the two spacecraft until they are in their final orbital slot, in a few weeks.