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Cape Canaveral, FL — On the evening of Monday, September 16, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, carrying two critical navigation satellites for Europe’s Galileo global positioning system. The launch is scheduled between 6:55 PM and 7:28 PM EDT and will be an important step towards continued development of Europe’s alternative to the U.S. GPS and Russia’s GLONASS systems. 

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The satellites, Galileo FOC FM26 and FM32, are part of Europe’s plan to provide robust, precise navigation services, further expanding the Galileo constellation’s operational capacity. These satellites will orbit at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), enhancing the system’s precision and availability to millions of users worldwide. 

Initially, the satellites were slated to launch aboard the Soyuz-ST rocket, but geopolitical factors following the Russian invasion of Ukraine made this option untenable. The mission was then assigned to the Ariane 6 rocket, but delays in that program necessitated another change. In a crucial decision for European space efforts, the European Space Agency (ESA) contracted SpaceX to carry out this launch. 

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The Galileo program, led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and funded by the European Union, is a flagship initiative designed to provide high-precision satellite navigation services. The satellites themselves were built by OHB Systems, a key European aerospace manufacturer, with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) providing the payload (RocketLaunch.org) (SatNews). 

Following liftoff, the Falcon 9 booster is scheduled to land on the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. The mission is part of a broader strategy to make space transportation more cost-efficient through the reuse of boosters. 

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Just a few days ago Launch Complex 40 was the site of another successful mission. On September 12, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried five BlueBird Block 1 satellites into orbit for AST SpaceMobile. These satellites are part of a revolutionary effort to provide space-based cellular broadband services directly to standard smartphones, bypassing traditional infrastructure. Despite challenging weather conditions, the rocket launched in the early morning hours, and the first-stage booster made a successful landing at Landing Zone 1, producing a sonic boom that resonated across the Florida Space Coast. 

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