Photos: Sending Galileo into orbit

Getting a new satellite off the ground

Galileo is the European satellite-based navigation system currently being developed.

Here's the Giove-A satellite on its Soyuz launcher on pad six at Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. This satellite was the first part of the Galileo project to launch in December last year.

Photo credit: ESA

Here is one of the European Space Agency's experts inspecting the satellite before it heads off into space.

Galileo could lead to the development of a new generation of super-accurate location based services.

Photo credit: ESA

As part of the early stages of the Galileo project, an experimental satellite will be launched to test the orbits used and some of the critical technologies, such as the atomic clocks.

Photo credit: ESA

This is how the Galileo System Testbed satellite GSTB-V2/B looks in orbit. The spacecraft antennae are directed towards the viewer.

Photo credit: ESA